Commodore Yeo pursued a similar policy to that which governed him the preceding summer. As long as he was manifestly superior in force to Chauncey, his fleet ruled the lake ; but nothing could induce him to hazard an engagement, when the force of his rival was nearly equal to his. During that part of the summer, when this was the case, he lay snug in Kingston harbour. This is by no means said in disparagement of the British commander; for every circumstance shows that this was the wisest policy, and perhaps the only one which could have saved Upper Canada.

98. On the 5th of May the British naval force under sir James Lucas Yeo, consisting of four large ships, three brigs, and a number of gun and other boats, appeared off the village of Oswego, having on board seven companies of infantry, a detachment of artillery, and a battalion of marines, under the command of lieutenant-general Drummond. This post being but occasionally, and not recently occupied by regular troops, was in a bad state of defence. It was garrisoned by about 300 regulars, under lieutenant-colonel Mitchell, who had only arrived a few days before. Lieutenant Woolsey of the navy, with a small body of seamen, was also at the village, and as soon as the feet appeared, the neighbouring militia were called in. About one o'clock the fleet approached, and 15 boats, large and crowded with troops, at a given signal moved slowly

to the shore. These were preceded by gun-boats, sent to rake the woods and cover the landing, while the larger vessels opened a fire upon the fort. As soon as the debarking boats got within range of the shot from the shore batteries, a very successful fire opened upon them, which twice compelled them to retire. They at length returned to the ships, and the whole stood off from the shore for better anchorage. Several boats which had been deserted by the enemy were taken up in the evening, one of which was 60 feet long, carried thirty-six oars and three sails, and could accommodate 150 men. She had received a ball through her bow, and was nearly filled with water.

At day-break next morning the fleet appeared bearing up under easy sail, and about noon the frigates took a position directly against the fort and batteries, and opened a heavy fire, which was kept up for three hours, while the brigs, schooners, and gun-boats covered by their fire the debarkation of the troops.

The Americans were now forced to retreat into the rear of the fort, where two companies met the advancing columns of the enemy, while the others engaged their flanks. Lieutenant

Pearce of the navy, and some seamen, joined in the attack, and fought with their characteristic bravery. After a short action, Mitchell again commenced a retreat, which was effected in good order, destroying the bridges in his rear. Indeed a retreat had become necessary for the protection of the stores at the falls, 13 miles in the rear of the fort, which were supposed to form the principal object of the expedition.

Early in the morning of the 7th, the British evacuated the place, and retired to their shipping, after destroying the fort and those public stores which they could not carry away. These stores were not important, the most valuable having been deposited at the falls.

The American official account states their loss at 6 killed, 38 wounded, and 25 missing; that of the British states theirs at 19 killed and 75 wounded. Among them were several officers. Mitchell states the force landed at 1550 men, while the Americans engaged did not exceed 300, being 4 companies of the 3d artillery under captains Boyle, Romayne, M'Intyre, and Pierce, a company of light artillery under captain Melvin, and a small detachment of sailors under lieutenant Pearce of the navy.

A short time after this event, the British fleet appeared near the mouth of the Gennesee river, where about 160 volunteers , were stationed, with one piece of artillery. Captain Stone, the commanding officer, dispatched expresses for assistance to different quarters. The following day the commodore's new

. ship came to anchor off the mouth of the river, and sent an officer on shore with a flag, demanding the surrender of the place, and promising to respect private property in case no resistance should be made, and all public property faithfully disclosed and given up. General Porter arrived while the flag was on shore, and returned for answer that the place would be defended to the last extremity. On the return of the flag, two gun-boats, with from 200 to 300 men on board, advanced to the river, which is about a mile from the town and battery, and commenced a heavy cannonade, directed partly to the town, and partly to bodies of troops who had been placed in ravines near the mouth of the river, to intercept the retreat of the gun-boats, in case they should enter.

At the expiration of an hour and a half, during which time they threw a great number of rockets, shells, and shot of different descriptions, from grape to 68 lbs., a second flag was sent from the commodore's ship, requiring, in the name of the commander of the forces, an immediate surrender, anet threat

, ening that if the demand was not complied with, he would VOL. IV.

B

a

land 1200 regular troops and 400 Indians; that if he should lose a single man, he would raze the town and destroy every vestige of property; and that it was his request that the women and children might be immediately removed, as he could not be accountable for the conduct of the Indians. He was told that the answer to his demand had already been explicitly given; that they were prepared to meet him, the women and children having been disposed of; and that if another flag should be sent on the subject of a sur

urrender, it would not be protected. The flag returned with the gun-boats to the fleet, the whole of which came to anchor about a mile from the shore, where they lay until 8 o'clock on Saturday morning, and then left the place.

On the evening of the following day, the British squadron was discovered making towards Pulteneyville, another small village on the margin of lake Ontario, and information was sent to general Swift, who repaired thither in the course of the night, with 130 volunteers and militia. Next morning a flag was sent on shore, demanding a peaceable surrender of all public property, and threatening an immediate destruction of the village in case of refusal. General Swift returned for answer, that he should oppose any attempt to land, by all the means in his power. Soon after the return of the flag, however, general Swift was induced, by the pressing solicitations and entreaties of the inhabitants of the town, to permit one of its citizens to go to the enemy with a flag, and offer the surrender of the property contained in a store-house at the water's edge, consisting of about 100 barrels of flour considerably damaged, on condition that the commanding officer would stipulate not to take any other, nor molest the inhabitants. But before its return, the enemy sent their gun-boats with several hundred men on shore, who took. possession of the flour in the store, and were proceeding to further depredations, when general Swift commenced a fire upon them from an adjacent wood, which wounded several, and became so harassing as to induce them to re-embark. They then commenced a cannonade from the fleet

upon town, which was continued for some time, but with no other injury than a few shot holes through the houses.

99. A short time after these affairs took place, two British gun-boats and five barges, some of which contained howitzers, manned by about 200 sailors and marines, under the command of captain Popham of the royal navy, were captured by a detachment of 120 riflemen and a few Oneida warriors, under

the

the command of major Appling, of the first United States rifle regiment.

Major Appling had been detached to protect the cannon and naval stores at Oswego, destined for commodore Chauncey's fleet. They were embarked on board a flotilla of boats, in charge of captain Woolsey of the navy, and had arrived safely in Sandy Creek. Here they were pursued by the enemy who was gallantly met by the riflemen, and after an action of a few minutes, beaten and taken, without the loss of a man ; an Indian and one rifleman only being wounded.

The riflemen were most judiciously posted along the bank, a short distance below captain Woolsey's boats, where the creek is narrow and shoal. Most of the men having withdrawn from the boats, the enemy gave three cheers at the prospect of the rich prize before him. His joy, however, was of short duration, for at this moment the riflemen poured forth their deadly fire, which in about ten minutes terminated in his total defeat, leaving an officer and 13 men killed, two officers and 28 men wounded (the officers and many of the men dans gerously); the residue, consisting of 10 officers and 133 men, taken prisoners.

Major Appling speaks in the highest terms of the courage and good conduct of his officers and men. Captain Harris with his troop of dragoons, and captain Melvin with his two field-pieces, had made a rapid march, and would in a few minutes have been ready to participate in the action, had the enemy been able to make a stand.

The captured officers and men spoke in the highest terms of commendation of major Appling and his rifle corps, to whose humane and spirited conduct they are probably indebted for the preservation of their lives. The Indians were the first to reach the enemy after they submitted, and had commenced executing the savage rule of warfare, sanctioned by AngloIndian example at the river Raisin, Lewistown, Tuscarora, &c. of murdering their prisoners, when the major and his men happily arrived, and succeeded, by a prompt and determined course, though not without violence, in terminating the tragic scene*.

No further events took place on this lake during the war worth recording, excepting the capture and destruction of a gun-boat at the head of the St. Lawrence, and the burning of

*

An Indian chief is said to have given vent to his feelings on this occasion in language similar to the following: "When British come to Buffalo, they kill white man, they kill Indian, they kill woman, they burn all houses-when British come here, you no let Indian kill him---you give him eat....this no good."

a vessel of war on the stocks at Presque Isle. Both these exploits were performed by lieutenant Gregory.

$10. Nothing of importance took place on lake Erie. The only hostile event that occurred was the destruction of some mills employed in manufacturing flour for the British army, at Long Point, by colonel Campbell, with a detachment of 500 or 600 men from Erie. The mills and some houses occupied as stores were burned. About 50 dragoons stationed there as a guard made their escape, when the party returned without losing a man. This event, which was certainly not strictly justified by the laws of war, though sanctioned by the practice of the enemy, was an unauthorised act on the part of colonel Campbell. A court of enquiry was held on his conduct, whose opinion was unanimously pronounced as follows:

"That, considering the important supplies of bread-stuffs, which from the evidence it appears the enemy's forces derived from the flour-manufacturing mills at and near to Dover, colonel Campbell was warranted in destroying those mills, according to the laws and usages of war, and, for a like reason, the court think him justified in burning the distilleries under the said laws and usages. The saw-mills and carding machine, from their contiguity to the other mills, were, as the court conceives, necessarily involved in one and the same burning.

"In respect to the burning of the dwelling and other houses in the village of Dover, the court are fully of opinion that colonel Campbell has erred; that he can derive no justification from the fact, that the owners of these houses were actively opposed to the American interests in the present war, or from the other facts, that some of them were at the conflagration of Buffalo. In their partizan services it does not appear to the court, that the inhabitants of Dover have done more than their proper allegiance required of them; and the destruction of Buffalo, by a lieutenant-general of the enemy's regular forces, was emphatically the wrong of the British government itself, rendered such by its subsequent adoption of the measure, and ought not to be ascribed to a few Canadians who were present at the time.

"Acts of retaliation, on the part of a nation proud of its rights, and conscious of the power of enforcing them, should, in the opinion of the court, be reluctantly resorted to, and only by instructions from the highest in authority. That no such instructions were given in the case under consideration, is not merely inferred from the absence of evidence to that effect, but is candidly admitted by colonel Campbell in his official re