PART XIII.

GENERAL DRUMMOND ARRIVES IN UPPER CANADA--COLONEL MURRAY SENT TO ARREST THE PREDATORY INCURSIONS OF THE BRUTAL GENERAL McCLURE UPON THE INHABITANTS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF FORT GEORGE--McCLURE'S BARBAROUS BURNING OF THE TOWN OF NEWARK (NIAGARA), EXPOSING 400 WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO THE INTENSE COLD OF THE 10TH OF DECEMBER--McCLURE'S FLIGHT TO FORT NIAGARA ON THE AMERICAN SIDE OF THE RIVER--COLONEL MURRAY, BY SURPRISING FORT NIAGARA, TAKES THE WHOLE GARRISON PRISONERS, AND SEIZES LARGE QUANTITIES OF MILITARY STORES--GENERAL RIALL RETALIATES IN THE SAME WAY, IN REGARD TO LEWISTON, BLACK ROCK, AND BUFFALO--GENERAL DRUMMOND ISSUES A PROCLAMATION DEPRECATING SUCH SAVAGE POLICY AS INITIALED BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.

Early in December, Major General De Rottenburgh was relieved in the command of Upper Canada by Lieutenant-General Drummond, who proceeded from Kingston to York, and from thence to the head of the lake, where the army again resumed an offensive position. The country along the St. Lawrence, being freed from the incursions of the enemy, Colonel Murray, of the 100th Regiment, was ordered to advance from Burlington Heights towards Fort George, with a view at that time to prevent predatory incursions of the enemy under General McClure (then in possession of that fort) on the defenceless inhabitants of the surrounding country. But General McClure, having heard of the disasters which had befallen the army destined for Montreal, and conscious that a like fate might probably await him and his army, with that dastardly cowardice peculiar to himself and a few of his compatriots and traitors who joined themselves to his train, and against the very spirit of the law of nations and of civilized warfare, immersed the flourishing town of Newark (Niagara) in one continued sheet of flame, and ignobly fled with his followers into his territory. The historian laments that it is not in his power to record one magnanimous act of that recreant General, to rescue his name from that gulf of infamy to which his nefarious conduct has forever doomed it.

But retaliation was only delayed a week. On the evening of the 18th of December, preparations were made for taking Fort Niagara from the enemy, for which service Colonel Murray, of the 100th Regiment, was selected to take the command; and long before daylight next morning this gallant officer, at the head of the grenadier company of the Royal Scots, the grenadier and light companies of the 41st Regiment, and a detachment of his own corps, crossed the river about two miles above the fort, upon which they immediately advanced. On approaching the fortress, sentries, planted on the outer works, were surprised and taken, the countersign obtained, and in a few minutes the fort was carried at the point of the bayonet.

The loss on the part of the British in this affair was only six killed and five wounded: that of the enemy amounted to sixty-five killed and fourteen wounded (all with the bayonet), and the whole garrison was made prisoners, consisting of nearly 350. There were in the fort, at the time of its capture, twenty-seven pieces of ordnance of weighty calibre, 3,000 muskets with apparatus, besides large magazines of camp equipage and military clothing, which of course fell into the hands of the victors.

On the same day on which Fort Niagara was captured, the town of Lewiston, about eight miles above Fort Niagara, was taken possession of by a British force under Major-General Riall, without opposition; in which place the public magazines were well filled with provisions and other military stores.

Towards the latter end of the same month, General Riall crowed the Niagara river at Black Rock, at the head of a force consisting of about 600 men, detachments from the 8th or the King's Regiment, 41st, 89th, and 100th Regiments, with a few Militia volunteers, exclusive of six or seven companies of the Royal Scots, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, who were directed to land between the villages of Buffalo and Black Rock, about two miles distant from each other, with a view to divert the garrison of Black Rock, while the other troops were landing in front of that port; but in consequence of the severity of the weather, a number of the boats were stranded; by which means the troops were unable to land in time to effect the object for which they had been intended; however, the enemy was driven from both positions in a short time.

The American loss in this affair was upwards of five hundred, 130 of whom were prisoners of war; the loss of the British was inconsiderable compared with that of the enemy.

The state of exasperation to which the mind of every British subject had been wrought by the conduct of McClure in burning the town of Newark, and exposing all to the inclemency of a Canadian winter, both the helpless infant and infirm old age, was such that nothing but a similar retaliation could assuage; the whole line of frontier, from Buffalo to Fort Niagara, was therefore burnt to ashes.

Ample vengeance having thus been taken for the wanton conflagration and cruel outrages committed upon the defenceless inhabitants of Newark and neighbourhood, Lieutenant-General Drummond, on the 12th of January, 1814, issued a proclamation, in which he strongly deprecated the savage mode of warfare to which the enemy, by a departure from the established usages of war, had compelled him to resort. He traced with faithful precision and correctness the conduct that had marked the progress of the war on the part of the enemy, and concluded by lamenting the necessity imposed upon him of retaliating upon the subjects of America the miseries inflicted upon the inhabitants of Newark, but at the same time declared it not to be his intention further to pursue a system so revolting to his own feelings, and so little congenial to the British character, unless he should be compelled by the future measures of the enemy.

FOOTNOTES:

"Terms of capitulation were agreed upon, by which the whole of General Winchester's command that had survived the fury of the battle were surrendered prisoners of war, amounting to upwards of 600. In this sanguinary engagement, the loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded, was nearly 500; while that of the British was only twenty-four killed and 161 wounded."--Ib., pp. 176, 177.]

"The 104th (or New Brunswick Regiment) marched through from Fredericton to Upper Canada, several hundreds of miles, with extraordinary celerity, in the month of March, though their route from Fredericton to the River St. Lawrence lay through an uninhabited wilderness buried in snow, and never before traversed by troops." (Christie's History of the War of 1812, p. 103.)]

"The Americans moved forward in three strong brigades, under Generals Chandler, Winder, and Boyd, with an advance of light troops and riflemen, under Colonels Scott and Forsyth, the whole commanded by General Lewis, the next in command to General Dearborn, whose low state of health compelled him to keep his bed, from whence he issued his orders." (Thompson's History of the War of 1812, Chap, xxiii., p. 185.)]

In General Vincent's official despatch relating to this brilliant and intrepid action, he gives the credit of it to Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey. He says: "To Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey, the Deputy-Adjutant-General, my obligations are particularly due. From the first moment the enemy's approach was known, he watched his movements, and afforded me the earliest information. To him, indeed, I am indebted for the suggestion and plan of operations; nothing could have been more clear than his arrangements, nor more completely successful in the result." (Christie, Chap. v.)]

"On Lake Ontario, a naval armament, which might be termed formidable for this inland sea, was arrayed on either side; and an interesting contest ensued between two skilful officers for the superiority. The General Pike, of twenty-two guns, having been launched, and proving to be an excellent sailer, Commodore Chauncey was now fully equal, in point of strength, to his antagonist. Sir James Yeo, though somewhat inferior in force, had the advantage in an important particular: his ships sailed better in squadron, and he could therefore avoid or come to an engagement as he thought proper. It being a matter all-important to the British, to prevent the Americans from becoming masters of the lake, Sir James prudently avoided a general action; while, on the other hand, to bring him to action was the great object of Commodore Chauncey. On the 7th of August the two fleets came in sight of each other. Commodore Chauncey manoeuvred to gain the wind. Having passed to the leeward of the enemy's line, and being abreast of his warship, the Wolfe, he fired a few guns to ascertain whether he could reach the hostile fleet. The shot falling short, he wore, and hauled upon a wind to the starboard tack; the rear of his schooners being six miles astern. Sir James wore also, and hauled upon a wind on the same tack; but observing that the American fleet would be able to weather him in the next tack, he tacked again and made sail to the northward. Commodore Chauncey pursued him. He continued the chase until night; but the schooners not being able to keep up, a signal was made to relinquish the pursuit, and to form in close order. The wind now blew heavily; and at midnight two of the schooners, the Scourge and the Hamilton, were found to have upset in the squall. Lieutenants Winter and Osgood, two valuable officers, were lost, and only sixteen men of the crews saved [picked up by the British]. The next morning, the enemy discovering this misfortune, and having now the superiority, manifested a disposition to engage the Americans, and bore up for the purpose. Two schooners were ordered to engage him; but when they were within a mile and a-half of him, he attempted to cut them off. Failing in this, he hauled his wind, and hove to. A squall coming on, Commodore Chauncey was fearful of being separated from his dull sailing schooners, and ran in towards Niagara and anchored. Here he received on board, from Fort George, 150 men to act as marines, and distributed them through his fleet. On the morning of the 9th he again sailed. At eleven o'clock, after much manoeuvring on both sides, the rear of the enemy's line opened its fire; and in fifteen minutes the action became general on both sides. At half-past eleven, the American weather line bore up and passed to the leeward, the Growler and Julia excepted, which soon after tacking to the southward, brought the British between them and the remainder of the American fleet. Sir James, after exchanging a few shots with the American commodore's ship, pursued the Growler and Julia. A fire commenced between them, which continued until one o'clock in the morning of the 10th, when, after a desperate resistance, the two schooners were compelled to yield. The fleets had lost sight of each other in the night; but as Sir James, on the next day, when they were again visible, showed no disposition to renew the action, Commodore Chauncey returned to Sackett's Harbour. A victory for this affair was claimed for the British commander." (Brackenridge's History of the War of 1812, etc., Chap, viii., pp. 121, 122.)]

"The American army was again ordered to cross the line and take up their winter quarters in their own territory, after repeatedly suffering themselves to be defeated under the most mortifying and humiliating circumstances; with the blame of which the commander-in-chief (General Wilkinson) charged General Hampton, in consequence of his disobedience of orders, but with which the American Secretary of War more properly charged both. However, it had the effect of checking the military zeal which appeared to manifest itself in the American ranks at a distance from the theatre of hostile operations, and completely to extinguish the ardour of the American troops on the lines." (Thompson, Chap. xxvii., p. 215.)]

The British, under the command of Colonel Murray, scarcely amounting to 500 men, including Indians and militia, immediately occupied Fort George. The barbarous policy of the American Government in destroying Newark, exasperated the army as well as the inhabitants on the frontier, of whose impatience for retaliation General Drummond promptly availed himself after the occupation of Fort George, by adopting the resolution of carrying the American Fort Niagara by surprise. (Chap. vii., p. 156.)

Mr. Thompson remarks on the conduct of McClure and his soldiers, even before the burning of the town of Newark: "The American army had no sooner taken up a position in front of Fort George, than the foraging parties, or rather marauders, commenced a systematic course of plunder upon the defenceless inhabitants within the vicinity of their camp, most of whom, at the time, consisted of women and children; even amongst the general officers acts of pillage were perpetrated, that, had such occurred with private soldiers in the British army, would have stamped a stigma on the character of the British, in the eyes of America, for which no course of conduct which they could ever after have pursued would have sufficiently atoned." (War of 1812, Chap. xxix., pp. 227, 228.)]