PART XI.. Occurrences on Lake Erie and in the West--Loss of the British

OCCURRENCES ON LAKE ERIE AND IN THE WEST--LOSS OF THE BRITISH FLEET--EVACUATION OF DETROIT AND THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN BY GENERAL PROCTOR, WHO IS PURSUED IN HIS RETREAT UP THE THAMES, AND DEFEATED BY GENERAL HARRISON, AND IS AFTERWARDS TRIED AND CONDEMNED TO BE SUSPENDED AND DEPRIVED OF HIS PAY FOR SIX MONTHS.

The operations on Lake Erie and in the West were disastrous to the British cause during the latter part of the summer and early autumn of 1813. General Harrison, with an army of 8,000 men on the Miami river, only awaited for the equipment of the American fleet fitting out under Commodore Perry, at Presqu' Isle (Erie), to move his forces against Detroit, and to carry on offensive operations against the British in the neighbourhood of Lake Erie. Captain Barclay, who had early in the summer assumed the command of the British squadron on Lake Erie, blockaded the American fleet, so as to prevent their crossing the bar at Presqu' Isle (which they could not effect without unshipping their guns) until the end of August; when, having occasion to bear away for Long Point, the enemy seized the moment of his absence and crossed the bar. Finding on his return the enemy ready for the lake, and too powerful for his small squadron, he bore away for Amherstburg, to await the equipment of the Detroit, recently launched.

Commodore Perry sailed shortly after him for the head of the lake, and appeared at the commencement of September, for several days successively, off Amherstburg, in defiance of the British squadron, retiring every evening to his anchorage at Put-in-Bay. The British forces in Michigan territory and its neighbourhood, under General Proctor, falling short of supplies for which they depended solely upon the fleet, the captain had no other alternative than that of risking a general naval engagement. With this resolution he made sail from Amherstburg on the 9th of September, manned with only fifty or sixty seamen (including a small reinforcement of thirty-six men from Lake Ontario), and detachments from the 41st and Royal Newfoundland Regiment as marines. On the 10th, in the morning, the enemy's fleet was descried at anchor in Put-in-Bay, which immediately weighed and bore down upon the British squadron, while the wind blowing a gentle breeze from the south-west, turning round to the south-east, gave the enemy the weather gage. At a quarter before twelve the British commenced firing, which was in ten minutes afterwards returned by the enemy, who bore up for close action. The engagement continued with unabated fury until half-past two, when the enemy's principal ship being rendered unmanageable, Commodore Perry left her in charge of his first lieutenant, Yarnal, and hoisted the pendant on board the Niagara. Soon after Commodore Perry had left the Lawrence, her colours were struck, but the British, from weakness of their crews and destruction of their boats, were unable to take possession of her.

It was at this anxious and interesting juncture that the fate of the day seemed to poise in favour of the British; and Commodore Perry even despaired of the victory, when a sudden breeze revived his hopes, and turned the scale in his favour. This fortunate commander, finding the Niagara had suffered lightly in the engagement, made a desperate effort to retrieve the fortune of the day, and taking advantage of the breeze, shot ahead of the Lady Prevost, Queen Charlotte, and Hunter, raking them with her starboard guns, and engaged the Detroit, which, being raked in all directions, soon became unmanageable. The Niagara then bore around ahead of the Queen Charlotte, and hauling up on starboard tack, engaged that ship, giving at the same time a raking fire with her larboard guns to the Chippewa and the Little Belt, while the smaller vessels, closing to grape and canister distance, maintained a most destructive fire. This masterly and but too successful manoeuvre decided the contest. Captain Barclay being severely and dangerously wounded, Captain Finnis, of the Queen Charlotte, killed, and every commander and officer second in command either killed or disabled, the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, perfect wrecks, after a desperate engagement of upwards of three hours, were compelled to surrender.

By this decisive action, the whole of the British squadron on Lake Erie was captured by the enemy, who now became masters of the lake. The enemy lost in this action twenty-seven men in killed and ninety-six men wounded. The British lost three officers and thirty-eight men killed, and nine officers and eighty-five men wounded.

The prisoners were landed at Sandusky, and treated with the greatest humanity by the American commodore, who paroled Captain Barclay, and treated that gallant officer with all the kindness and attention which his unsuccessful bravery deserved.

The British army in possession of the Michigan territory and the neighbourhood of Detroit, by this disastrous defeat, were deprived of every prospect of obtaining future supplies from Kingston by way of Lake Ontario, and a speedy evacuation of Detroit, and a retreat towards the head of that lake became inevitable.

General Harrison having received reinforcements amounting to 7,000 or 8,000 men, including 4,000 volunteers from Kentucky under Samuel Shelby, the ex-governor of that State, and an old revolutionary officer, was conveyed by Commodore Perry, in his flotilla, with all the troops and stores, from the mouth of the Miami to the Canadian shore, except the thousand dragoons who were to advance by land, and so order their march that they might arrive in the neighbourhood of Malden at the same time with the infantry. General Harrison occupied Amherstburg the evening of the 23rd of September, General Proctor having previously abandoned it and fallen back upon Sandwich, after having set fire to the navy yard, barracks, and public stores at the former place.

General Harrison, on his arrival, having found the different points evacuated, invested General McArthur with the chief command of these garrisons, and prepared to pursue the retreating army up the River Thames, with a force of 3,000 men, including Colonel Johnson's corps of dragoons, consisting of 1,000. General Harrison occupied Sandwich the 27th of September, and on the 2nd of October he marched in pursuit of the shattered remains of the British forces under General Proctor. In this, his reverse of fortune, the Indians, under Colonel Elliot, of the Indian Department, with Tecumseh, still adhered to his standard with unshaken fidelity, and covered his retreat.

On the 4th of October, General Harrison came up with the rear-guard of the British, and succeeded in capturing the whole of their ammunition and stores. General Proctor, under this second reverse of fortune, by which he was left destitute of the means of subsistence or defence, found himself compelled to stake the fate of the remnant of his small army on a general engagement. Accordingly he assumed a position on the right bank of the River Thames, near the Indian village of Moravian Town--the left resting on the river supported by a field-piece, his right on a swamp, at a distance of 300 yards from the river, and flanked by the whole Indian force attached to the division. The intermediate ground, covered with lofty trees, was dry and somewhat elevated. Here General Proctor formed his troops into line, to the number of 500 or 600. The Indians under Tecumseh amounted to 1,200. In this position he awaited the approach of the enemy, who, on the morning of the 5th of October, passed the river at a rapid twelve miles below the Moravian village, and came up with the British in the afternoon. General Harrison drew up his men in two lines, and secured his left flank, which was opposed to the Indians, by a division thrown back en potence; and without any previous engagement by infantry, ordered his mounted Kentuckians (accustomed from their boyhood to ride with extraordinary dexterity through the most embarrassed woods) to charge at full speed upon (the open line of) the British, which had effected before the latter had time to discharge their third fire. This cavalry charge of the enemy on the British line decided the issue of the day. The line gave way at the charge; the troops, worn down with fatigue and hunger, dispirited by the unpromising appearance of the campaign, became totally routed, and for the most part surrendered themselves prisoners, while General Proctor and his personal staff sought safety in flight.

To the left of the enemy's position, which was opposed to the Indians, the battle raged with more obstinacy. This part of the enemy's line had even given way until a column under ex-Governor Shelby was brought up to its support. These faithful allies continued to carry on the contest with the left of the American line with furious determination, encouraged by the presence of Tecumseh, until finding all hopes of retrieving the day to be in vain--General Proctor and his soldiers having fled or surrendered--they yielded to the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, and left the field--upwards of 100 of them having fallen in battle, and the bodies of 33 of them being found around the dead body of their famous chief and warrior, Tecumseh; celebrated no less for his humanity than for his bravery, his eloquence, and his influence among the Indian allies of the British in the West.

Upwards of 600 of the British, including twenty-five officers, were made prisoners of war. Those who escaped made the best of their way to Ancaster, a few miles from Burlington Heights, exposed at an inclement season to all the horrors of the wilderness, of hunger, and famine. The number thus escaped to that place amounted to only 246, including the general and seventeen officers.

This disaster of the British arms in that quarter seems not to have been palliated by those precautions and that presence of mind which, even in defeat, reflects lustre on a commander. In rapid retreats from a pursuing enemy cumbrous and useless baggage is abandoned, and bridges and roads are destroyed and rendered as impassable as possible, in order to impede the progress of the pursuers; but General Proctor encumbered himself with a cumbrous load of baggage, and left the bridges and roads in his rear entire, to the advantage of his pursuers. Whether this error and neglect arose from contempt of the enemy, or from disobedience of the commanding officer's orders, is not well understood; but the defeat led to the harshest recrimination, and involved in unmerited disgrace the division of the brave troops that had served with honour in the Michigan territory; and General Proctor was subjected to a trial by court-martial for his conduct in the whole affair--censured and deprived of his pay for six months.