1814	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	340

carronades, total 17 guns, and a regular crew of 115, with about 15 acting marines, or 130 men in the whole ; sloop Preble, of seven long 9-pounders and 45 men, and 10 gun-boats, mounting between them six long 24, six medium 18, and four long 12 pounders, and manned with 346 men ; making a grand total of 86 guns and 981 men, the whole of the latter, excepting the regular troops (about 83 in number) acting as marines, seamen from the American ships of war laid up at New-London and other ports of the Atlantic frontier.

On the 25th of August a ship, which had been hastily constructed by the British, was launched in the vicinity of Isleaux-Noirs ; and on the 3d of September Captain George Downie, late of the Montreal on Lake Ontario, accompanied by his first lieutenant, arrived to take the command of the Confiance, as the new ship was named, as well as of the British squadron on Lake Champlain : which squadron, as soon as the Confiance could be armed and manned, Sir George Prevost had directed to co-operate with the British army, in the intended attack upon Plattsburg and the American shipping lying near it. On the same day that be arrived, Captain Downie detached Captain Pring with the flotilla of gun-boats to protect the left flank of the army ; and on the 4th Captain Pring took quiet possession of Isle de la Motte, and constructed a battery of three long 18-pounders to support his position abreast of Little-Chazy, where the supplies of the army were ordered to be landed.

The approach of Sir George's army, by Odelltown, to the line of demarcation, was the signal for Major-general Macomb, with the few regulars of General Izard's army left under his command to retire from the neighbourhood of the lines towards Plattsburg; and the latter's abandoned camp was entered by Sir George Prevost on the 3d of September. From this position the British left division, of about 7000 men, composed of all but the reserve and heavy artillery, moved forward on the 4th, and halted on the 5th, within eight miles of Plattsburg ; having taken four days to advance 25 miles along the lake-shore. On the 6th, early in the morning, the left division proceeded on its march, Major-general Power's, or the right column advancing by the Beckmantown road; and Major-general Brisbane's column, except one wing of De Meuron's regiment, left to keep up the communication with the main body, taking the road that runs parallel to Lake Champlain. At a bridge crossing a creek that intersects this road, the American general had stationed a small force, with two field-pieces, to abattis and obstruct the way. In the mean while the right column, meeting with no impediments to its progress, passed rapidly on, 700 American militia, upon whom, says General Macomb, " the British troops did not deign to fire, except by their flankers and advanced patroles," retreating before it. The rapid advance of Major-general Power secured Major-general Brisbane from any further

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