A fraction of the Democratic party, and most of the Federalists, voted for De Witt Clinton' for President, and Jared Ingersoll, for Vice-President. Notwithstanding the members of Congress then elected, were chiefly Democrats, it was evident that the opposition was powerful and increasing, particularly in the eastern States, yet the President felt certain that the great body of the people were favorable to his war policy.

CHAPTER V.

THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1813.]

DURING the autumn of 1812, the whole western country, incensed by Hull's surrender, seemed filled with the zeal of the old Crusaders. Michigan had to be recovered,' and the greatest warlike enthusiasm prevailed. Volunteers had gathered under local leaders, in every settlement. Companies were formed and equipped in a single day, and were ready to march the next. For several weeks the volunteers found employment in driving the hostile Indians from post to post, in the vicinity of the extreme western settlements. They desolated their villages and plantations, after the manner of Sullivan, in 1779,* and the fiercest indignation against the white people was thus excited among the tribes, which, under the stimulus of their British allies, led to terrible retaliations. So eager were the people for battle, that the snows of winter in the great wilderness, did not keep them from the field. The campaign of 1813 opened with the year. Almost the entire northern frontier of the United States was the chief theatre of operations. The army of the West, under General Harrison,' was concentrating at the head of Lake Erie; that of the Centre, now under Dearborn, was on the banks of the Niagara River; and that of the North,' under Hampton, was on the borders of Lake Champlain. Sir George Prevost was the successor of Brock in command of the British army in Canada, assisted by General Proctor in the direction of Detroit," and by General Sheaffe in the vicinity of Montreal and the lower portions of Lake Champlain.

8

Brave and experienced leaders had rallied to the standard of Harrison in the north-west. Kentucky sent swarms of her young men, from every social

3

Page 411.

1 Page 456. 2 Note 5, page 38. • Page 304. Harrison early took steps to relieve the frontier posts. These were Fort Harrison, on the Wabash; Fort Wayne, on the Miami of the lakes; Fort Defiance [Note 6, page 374]; and Fort Deposit, to which the Indians laid siege on the 12th of September. Generals Winchester, Tupper, and Payne, and Colonels Wells, Scott, Lewis, Jennings, and Allen, were the chief leaders against the savages. Operations were carried on vigorously, further west. Early in October, almost four thousand volunteers, chiefly mounted riflemen, under General Hopkins, had collected at Vincennes [page 303] for an expedition against the towns of the Peoria and other Indians, in the Wabash country. It was this formidable expedition, sanctioned by Governor Shelby, which produced the greatest devastation in the Indian country. Note 3, page 412. Page 474. 10 Page 411. "Page 412.

Note 3, page 412.

Note 3, page 412.

T

rank, led by the veteran Shelby,' and the yeomanry of Ohio and its neighborhood hastened to the field. So numerous were the volunteers, that Harrison was compelled to issue an order against further enlistments, and many a warm heart, beating with desire for military glory, was chilled by disappointment. General Harrison chose the west end of Lake Erie as his chief place of muster,

2

with the design of making a descent upon the British at Malden and Detroit, and by securing possession of those posts, recover Michigan and the forts west of it. Early in January [10th, 1813], General Winchester, on his way from the southward, with eight hundred young men, chiefly Kentuckians, reached the Maumee Rapids. There he was informed [January 13, 1813] that a party of British and Indians had concentrated at Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, twenty-five miles south of Detroit. He immediately sent a detachment,

Isaac Shelby was born in Maryland, in 1750. He entered military life in 1774, and went to Kentucky as a land-surveyor, in 1775. He engaged in the War of the Revolution, and was distinguished in the battle on King's Mountain [page 319] in 1780. He was made governor of Kentucky in 1792, and soon afterward retired to private life, from which he was drawn, first in 1812, to the duties of Chief Magistrate of his State, and again, in 1813, to lead an army to the field against his old enemy. He died in 1826, when almost seventy-six years of age. 2 Page 412.

4

Note 7, page 374.

Opposite the flourishing village of Monroe, Michigan, two or three miles from Lake Erie. The Raisin derived its name from the fact, that in former years great quantities of grapes clustered upon

its banks.

under Colonels Allen and Lewis, to protect the inhabitants in that direction. Finding Frenchtown in the possession of the enemy, they successfully attacked [January 18] and routed them, and held possession until the arrival of Winchester [January 20], with almost three hundred men, two days afterward.

General Proctor, who was at Malden, eighteen miles distant, heard of the advance of Winchester, and proceeded immediately and secretly, with a combined force of fifteen hundred British and Indians, to attack him. They fell upon the American camp at dawn, on the morning of the 22d of January. After a severe battle and heavy loss on both sides, Winchester,' who had been made a prisoner by the Indians, surrendered his troops on the condition, agreed to by Proctor, that ample protection to all should be given. Proctor, fearing the approach of Harrison, who was then on the Lower Sandusky, immediately marched for Malden, leaving the sick and wounded Americans behind, without a guard. After following him some distance, the Indians turned back [January 23], murdered and scalped the Americans who were unable to travel, set fire to dwellings, took many prisoners to Detroit, in order to procure exorbitant ransom prices, and reserved some of them for inhuman torture. The indifference of Proctor and his troops, on this occasion, was criminal in the highest degree, and gave just ground for the dreadful suspicion, that they encouraged the savages in their deeds of blood. Oftentimes after that, the war-cry of the Kentuckians was, "Remember the River Raisin!" The tragedy was keenly felt in all the western region, and especially in Kentucky, for the slain, by bullet, arrow, tomahawk, and brand, were generally of the most respectable families in the State; many of them young men of fortune and distinction, with numerous friends and relations.

PROCTORS
CAMP

FMIAMI

BATTERY

BRITISH

when the intelligence of the Supposing Proctor would back [January 23, 1813];

Harrison had advanced to the Maumee Rapids, affair at Frenchtown reached him. press forward to attack him, he fell but on hearing of the march of the British toward Malden, he advanced [February 1] to the rapids, with twelve hundred men, established a fortified camp there, and called it Fort Meigs,' in honor of the governor of Ohio. There he was besieged by Proctor several weeks afterward [May 1], who was at the head of more than two thousand British and Indians. On the fifth day of the siege, General Clay' arrived [May 5] with twelve hundred men, and dispersed the enemy. A large portion of his troops, while unwisely pursuing the fugitives, were surrounded and captured; and Proctor returned to the siege. The impatient Indians, refusing to listen to Tecumseh,' their leader, deserted

T: MEICS

FORT MEIGS.

1 James Winchester was born in Maryland in 1756. He was made brigadier-general in 1812; resigned his commission in 1815; and died in Tennessee in 1826. Note 4, page 14.

3 Fort Meigs was erected on the south side of the Maumee, nearly opposite the former British post [note 8, page 374], and a short distance from the present village of Perrysburg.

Green Clay was born in Virginia in 1757, was made a brigadier of Kentucky volunteers early in 1813, and died in October, 1826.

6

Page 408. Tecumseh came with the largest body of Indians ever collected on the northern frontier.

the British on the eighth day [May 8]; and twenty-four hours afterward, Proctor abandoned the siege and returned to Malden [May 9], to prepare for a more formidable invasion. Thus terminated a siege of thirteen days, during which time the fortitude and courage of the Americans were wonderfully displayed in the presence of the enemy. The Americans lost in the fort, eightyone killed, and one hundred and eighty-nine wounded.

For several weeks after the siege of Fort Meigs, military operations were suspended by both parties. Here, then, let us take a brief retrospective glance. Congress assembled on the 2d of November, 1812, and its councils were divided by fierce party spirit, which came down from the people. The Democrats had a decided majority, and therefore the measures of the administration were sustained. The British government now began to show some desire for reconciliation. Already the orders in council had been repealed, and the Prince Regent' demanded that hostilities should cease. To this the President replied, that being now at war, the United States would not put an end to it, unless full provisions were made for a general settlement of differences, and a cessation of the practice of impressment, pending the negotiation. At about the same time a law was passed, prohibiting the employment of British seamen in American vessels. The British also proposed an armistice, but upon terms which the Americans could not accept. Indeed, all propositions from that quarter were inconsistent with honor and justice, and they were rejected. When these attempts at reconciliation had failed, the Emperor Alexander of Russia offered his mediation. The government of the United States instantly accepted it,' but the British government refused it; and so the war went on. Congress made provision for prosccuting it with vigor; and the hope lighted by Alexander's offer, soon faded. The American troops in the West had remained at Fort Meigs and vicinity. Toward the close of July [July 21, 1813], about four thousand British and Indians, under Proctor and Tecumseh,' again appeared before that fortress, then commanded by General Clay. Meeting with a vigorous resistance, Proctor left Tecumseh to watch the fort, while he marched [July 28], with five hundred regulars and eight hundred Indians, to attack Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, which was garrisoned by about one hundred and fifty young men, commanded by Major Croghan, a brave soldier,

OWELL

ᄆ

STORE

STORES
ПОЗО

FORT SANDUSKY.

HOUSE

1 When, in consequence of mental infirmity, George the Third became incompetent to reign, in February, 1811, his son, George, Prince of Wales, and afterward George the Fourth, was mado regent, or temporary ruler of the realm. He retained the office of king, pro tempore, until the death of his father, in 1820.

2 The President appointed, as commissioners, or envoys extraordinary, to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain, under the Russian mediation, Albert Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, and James A. Bayard. Mr. Adams was then American minister at the Russian court, and was joined by Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard in June following. Page 408.

3

On the west bank of the Sandusky River, about fifteen miles south from Sandusky Bay. The area within the pickets [note 1, page 127] was about an acre. The fort was made of regular embankments of earth and a ditch, with bastions and block-houses [note 3, page 192] and some rude log buildings within.

The greater portion of the garrison were very young men, and some of them were mere

youths.

then only twenty-one years of age.' Proctor's demand for surrender was accompanied by the usual menace of Indian massacre; but it did not intimidate Croghan. After a severe cannonade had made a breach, about five hundred of the besiegers attempted to rush in and take the place by assault [Aug. 2, 1813]; but so terribly were they met by grape-shot' from the only cannon in the fort, that they recoiled, panicstricken, and the whole body fled in confusion, leaving one hundred and fifty of their number killed or wounded. The Americans lost only one man killed, and seven wounded. This gallant defense was universally applauded, and it had a powerful effect upon the Indians. Proctor and Tecumseh left for Detroit, after this noble defense of Fort Stephenson, and the British abandoned all hope of capturing these western American posts, until they should become masters of Lake Erie. But while the events just narrated were in progress, a new power appeared in the conflict in the West and North, and complicated the difficulties of the enemy. In the autumn of 1812, Commodore Chauncey had fitted out a small naval armament at Sackett's Harbor, to dispute the mastery, on Lake Ontario, with several British armed vessels then afloat. And during the summer of 1813, Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry had prepared, on Lake Erie, an American squadron of nine vessels,' mounting fifty-four guns, to co-operate with the Army of the West. The British had also fitted out a small squadron of six vessels, carrying sixty-three guns, commanded by Commodore Barclay. Perry's fleet was ready by the 2d of August, but some time was occupied in getting several of his vessels over the bar in the harbor of Erie. The hostile fleets met near the western extremity of Lake Erie on the morning of the 10th of September, 1813, and a very severe battle ensued. The brave Perry managed with the skill of an old admiral, and the courage of the proudest soldier. His flag-ship, the Lawrence, had to bear the brunt of the battle, and very soon she became an unmanageable wreck, having all her crew, except four or five, killed or wounded. Perry then left her, in an open boat, and hoisted his flag on the Niagara at the moment when that of the Lawrence fell. With this vessel he

1

George Croghan was a nephew of George Rogers Clarke [page 300]. He afterward rose to the rank of colonel, and held the office of inspector-general. He died at New Orleans in 1849.

2 In reply to Proctor's demand and threat, he said, in substance, that when the fort should be taken there would be none left to massacre, as it would not be given up while there was a man left to fight.

The British employed six six-pounders and a howitzer, in the siege. A howitzer is a piece of ordnance similar to a mortar, for hurling bomb-shells. 4 Note 4, page 242.

6

Major Croghan was immediately promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel; and the ladies of Chillicothe gave him an elegant sword.

6

Chauncey's squadron consisted of six vessels, mounting thirty-two guns, in all. The British squadron consisted of the same number of vessels, but mounting more than a hundred guns. Notwithstanding this disparity, Chauncey attacked them near Kingston [note 5, page 180] early in November, damaged them a good deal, and captured and carried into Sackett's Harbor, a schooner belonging to the enemy. He then captured another schooner, which had $12,000 in specie on board, and the baggage of the deceased General Brock. See page 414.

Lawrence (flag-ship), 20 guns; Niagara, 20; Caledonian, 3; shooner Ariel, 4; Scorpion, 2; Somers, 2 guns and 2 swivels; sloop Trippe, and schooners Tigress and Porcupine, of 1 gun each.