The War of 1812 (15 page)

Suddenly, a large store of gunpowder under the bastion exploded, killing many of the attackers and blowing others into the ditch. Few were unhurt. Most of the defenders were behind barracks that protected
them from the blast. The British attack ended ignominiously, as the troops fled back to their camp north of Fort Erie.

The sun rose to reveal heaps of dead and wounded men in the ditch and along the lakeshore. British losses were 366 killed or wounded and 539 missing, many of them prisoners. American casualties numbered only eighty-four in total. The severity of British losses is illustrated by Dr. William Dunlop's description of the effect on his regiment: “After the blow up, our little corps was broken up, and the companies composing it joined their respective battalions. My own regiment was wretchedly reduced; little more than three months before it had gone into the Battle of the Falls, five hundred strong, with a full complement of officers. Now we retired about sixty rank and file, commanded by a Captain, two of the senior Lieutenants carrying the colours, and myself marching in the rear-voila, His Majesty's 89th Regiment of Foot!“
⁴

Why did the night attack fail? For one thing, Drummond's bombardment had not sufficiently damaged the fort's defences. But the main reason was that the Americans were prepared. As soon as the British guns stopped firing, Gaines and Ripley put their men on the alert. Without the advantage of surprise, the British attack could not succeed against strong defences manned by steady troops under good leaders.

The Battle of Lundy's Lane produced the heaviest losses of the war.
Both sides claimed victory, but it was the Americans who retreated.

[Reprinted from
The War of 1812: The War for Canada,
by W.B.
Turner (Toronto, Grolier Limited, 1982), p. 65.]

Drummond continued the siege but could not capture the fort. On the other hand, the Americans could not break out or advance. They could do little except suffer casualties in reply to the merciless bombardment from the British siege batteries. One hundred and seventy-three years later, the bones of at twenty-eight men who died during those weeks were discovered at Snake Hill on Lake Erie. That position, anchoring the extreme western end of the defences of Fort Erie, had included a hospital cemetery. The soldiers' remains — carefully uncovered during the winter of 1987–88 — showed signs not only of wounds (predominantly on the left side) but also of disease and stress caused by heavy work and long marches. (The remains were given military honours when they were reburied at Bath National Cemetery, New York, on July 1, 1988.)

By mid-September Drummond was becoming discouraged. Perry controlled Lake Erie while Chauncey was patrolling Lake Ontario and preventing supplies reaching Fort George. More and more of Drummond's troops were falling sick and all were miserable because of constant rain. General Brown, after he resumed command of the American forces, launched a sortie against the three British batteries bombarding Fort Erie. Catching the British by surprise, the Americans put two of the batteries out of commission before being driven back to the fort. Soon after this severe setback, on September 21, Drummond ended the siege. He placed his guns in strong positions along the Chippawa River, and withdrew most of his troops to Chippawa and Fort George.

In October, Major General Izard arrived with about four thousand soldiers and took command. He advanced to the banks of the Chippawa, but could not lure Drummond to attack him. On the 18
^th
, he sent a small unit inland to seize supplies at Cook's Mills, on Lyon's Creek. The next day, after a skirmish with British infantry, the Americans withdrew. Unable to advance inland and knowing that command of Lake Ontario had switched to the British, Izard decided to end the futile campaign. On November 5 he withdrew from the fort and then blew it up.

Thus, at the end of 1814 as at the beginning, the Americans held no Canadian territory along the Niagara; the British held Fort Niagara but could not advance any further.

During 1814, developments in other areas reflected those in the Niagara Peninsula. By the end of the year, along the Canadian border, neither side had gained new territory or lost what they had held at the beginning.

In the Northwest, the Americans tried to capture British posts in order to destroy the British-Indian alliance, which had continued despite the American capture of Detroit. This strategy was advanced when, in June, an American force seized Prairie du Chien, a fur-trading post on the Mississippi River. The next month, Lieutenant-Colonel George Croghan sailed from Detroit with over seven hundred men to attack Michilimackinac. But Prevost had reinforced that post.

The British assault on Fort Erie, 15 August 1814.

[Reprinted from
The Defended Border,
by Morris Zaslow (Toronto,
Macmillan of Canada, 1964), p. 157.]

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert McDouall had arrived at Michilimackinac with troops and supplies on May 18. When he learned of the American capture of Prairie du Chien, McDouall knew he would have to retake the post to keep Indian support. He sent William McKay, a fur trader, with a force of militia, traders, Indians, and one regular artilleryman with a small gun. McKay found the Americans had built a fort (Fort Shelby), but after a three-day siege, the Americans surrendered. When Croghan landed on the island on August 4, McDouall was ready for him. Fighting outside the fort with his regulars, Indians and militia, he defeated the larger American force, which retreated to its boats. The next day, Croghan departed, leaving the schooners
Tigress
and
Scorpion
behind to blockade Michilimackinac.

On his way back to Detroit, Croghan discovered the British schooner
Nancy
hidden on the Nottawasaga River. This North West Company vessel had been taken over by the British government for use as a transport on lakes Erie and Huron. Croghan knew that if he destroyed the
Nancy
, the British would have great difficulty getting supplies to Michilimackinac. Lieutenant Miller Worsley, who commanded the British force, set fire to the schooner to prevent her capture.

The Americans now had the only sailing vessels on Lake Huron, but their superior position did not last long. Worsley and his men paddled canoes all the way from the Nottawasaga to Michilimackinac. On September 3, Worsley set out at night with ninety-two men in rowboats to attack the
Tigress
. The Americans spotted them and began shooting, but the Indians and British managed to clamber aboard the schooner and capture it.

Two days later, Worsley sailed the
Tigress
towards the
Scorpion
, craftily keeping the American flag flying and his soldiers hidden. When he was close enough, he fired the
Tigress
's cannons. The Americans were taken completely by surprise and the British had little trouble seizing the
Scorpion
.

The two captured ships restored British naval dominance on Lake Huron. They retained it, the fort at Michilimackinac, and Indian support for the rest of the war. But they could not drive the Americans out of the western part of Upper Canada or recapture Detroit.

On Lake Ontario, after Chauncey came out in August, Yeo remained in port until his new ship was ready. He hoped that the
St. Lawrence
, launched on September 10, would give him naval preponderance. It was a huge three-decker, designed to carry 102 guns and at least seven hundred crewmen. The vessel was finally ready to sail on October 16 and when Yeo brought out his stronger squadron, Chauncey withdrew to Sackets Harbor. For the remainder of the shipping season, Yeo's ships ferried troops and supplies to Drummond's army and took away exhausted soldiers.

The shipbuilding race continued. The Americans and the British started three new ships each. The only one to be launched before the end of the war was the British frigate
Psyche
. The frames for this vessel had been built in Britain and transported to Canada where it was assembled. American shipbuilders would now have to compete not only with Kingston but also with British shipyards. This change, which threatened to give Canada's defence a significant advantage, did not last long, for the shipbuilding contest was coming to an end.

To create his fleet on Lake Ontario, Yeo made sure that most naval supplies and seamen arriving in Canada were sent to Kingston. As a result, little help could be sent to Ile aux Noix, the British naval base on Lake Champlain. Superiority on this lake had swung to the Americans, and, in response, the British were building a frigate to strengthen their fleet.

The frigate was launched late in August and a new British commander, Captain George Downie, was sent to Lake Champlain. When he arrived there on September 2, he faced the difficult task of getting the new ship ready for service in a few days.

An attack on Plattsburgh had been planned earlier in the year as part of the British aim to be in a strong position for the peace negotiations. The government provided over thirteen thousand troops from Europe, most of whom had served under Wellington. On September 1, Prevost led an army 10,351 strong across the border, the most powerful British army seen along the frontier during the entire war.

On the 6th, Prevost halted on the north side of the Saranac River across from Plattsburgh. On the other side, about three thousand troops worked hard to strengthen the fortifications while militiamen of New York and Vermont flocked in and skirmished with the British along the river. Nearby, in Plattsburgh Bay, Captain Thomas
Macdonough's squadron of four ships and ten gunboats lay at anchor. Prevost decided to wait for Captain Downie to arrive with his fleet so that the army and navy could attack at the same time. Every day he wrote Downie urging him to hurry his ships down to Plattsburgh. The captain did not dare attack without his new frigate. He was still making up crews for his vessels as late as September 9, and the frigate was not completely finished when it sailed with the squadron before dawn on the eleventh.

The British and American fleets began battling between 8 and 9 a.m. Only minutes later, Downie was killed but the fierce fight continued for two hours. Then the British, who had suffered great losses, gave up.

Prevost did not launch his assault on the American land defences when the naval battle began. He ordered Major-General Frederick P. Robinson to start the attack at 10 a.m. An hour or so later, most of the troops had crossed the Saranac and were forming up to charge the American positions. Robinson and his troops, veterans of battles against tough French soldiers, regarded the American positions as an easy target Their self-confidence was never put to the test, however, because Prevost halted the land attack as soon as Downie's fleet surrendered. He ordered the troops to destroy their extra supplies and retreat. The army arrived back in Canada virtually unharmed.

The entire Plattsburgh campaign had failed to achieve British aims. Macdonough's victory gained more than the destruction of the British naval squadron on Lake Champlain, for it ended “one of the most formidable British threats of the war.”
⁵
From the military point of view the situation was a stalemate. Prevost's strong forces blocked the Americans from invading Lower Canada while American control of Lake Champlain prevented any further British invasion. Yet this meant security for that section of the United States, and American negotiators at Ghent had another reason to resist British demands.

Many British officers felt that Prevost had brought disgrace on the army. They had complained about his leadership before the ill-fated invasion, and now their criticisms increased. They maintained that their troops could easily have captured Plattsburgh even without Downie's fleet. The army would have had to withdraw, but it could have done so after a victory instead of appearing to flee from a defeat.

The British government recalled Prevost in March 1815 to answer this and other complaints. They accepted his explanation that he had no choice but to retreat since American control of the lake would
have made it impossible for his army to maintain its communications and supply line. This explanation left some questions unanswered — why had he not tried to capture Plattsburgh before the eleventh? Why had he not acted at the same time as Downie? And the matter did not end there. A naval court seemed to criticize his conduct, and Prevost asked for an army court martial. He died, however, before it was held.