From the Niagara frontier and the portion of the Army of the North engaged there we will now turn to the consideration of the events upon Lake Champlain and its vicinity during the year 1814, where the other portion of that army was in active service. We have already taken a brief glance at military operations in that quarter to the close of the campaign of the previous year, when General Wilkinson, relieved of command, retired from the army, and General Hampton, another incompetent, also left the service for his country’s good. 1 His lieutenant, General George Izard, of South Carolina, was soon afterward [May 4, 1814.] placed in command of the right wing of the Army of the North, with a competent staff, 2 and made his headquarters at Plattsburg.

Since the opening of the campaign in the spring a great change had occurred in the aspect of foreign affairs – a change which made a deep impression on the American mind in its contemplations of the war. We have already alluded to the disasters of Napoleon at Leipsic in the autumn of 1813. Notwithstanding brilliant achievements on his part after that, the Allied Powers finally pushed him back, and not only confined him to the soil of France, but hemmed him and his army almost within the walls of Paris. There was no chance for his escape. On the 31st of March, 1814, the Emperor of Russia and the Duke of Wellington entered the city as conquerors, and on the 11th of May Napoleon abdicated the throne of France and retired to the island of Elba. 3 His downfall was hailed with great joy, not only in Europe, but by the great Federal party in the United States, 4 who considered his ruin as the most damaging blow that could be given to their political opponents and the war party. Pulpits, presses, public meetings, and social entertainments were pressed into the service as proclaimers of their satisfaction, notwithstanding it was evident that the release thereby of a large British army from service on the Continent would enable the common enemy to send an overwhelming force across the Atlantic that might crush the American armies, and possibly reduce the states to British provinces. Their hopes and the limit of their wishes doubtless were that the changed aspect of foreign affairs, and the consciousness of the great peril that might reasonably be apprehended, would cause the administration to seek peace on any terms. They were mistaken, as the sequel will show.

On the 9th of May [1814.] General Izard was informed that the enemy were in motion below. Captain Pring, of the Royal Navy, was moving up the Sorel in the brig Linnet as his flag-ship, accompanied by five armed sloops and thirteen row-galleys. On the following day he anchored his flotilla behind Providence Island, in Lake Champlain, where he remained until the 13th [May.], preparing for an attack on the American flotilla, then nearly ready for sea at Vergennes, in Vermont, at the head of the navigation of Otter Creek. 5

Both parties now prepared for a struggle for supremacy on Lake Champlain. The British, as we have observed, had adopted in a degree the plan of Burgoyne for separating New England from the rest of the Union, while the Americans were as determined to resist the meditated invasion at the very threshold, and defend the lake region and the valley of the upper Hudson at the gates of Canada. Both parties were also re-enforced during the remainder of May, and General Izard caused a battery of four 18-pounders to be planted on Cumberland Head instead of at Rouse’s Point, at the entrance to the Sorel River, as directed by the Secretary of War, 6 and urged by Major Totten, his chief engineer.

At the middle of June Izard disposed his troops for a movement into Canada. He sent Brigadier General Thomas A. Smith, with a light brigade of about fourteen hundred men, to occupy the village of Champlain, 7 five miles below the Canada line. Colonel Pearce, of the Sixteenth, was at Chazy with about eight hundred men composed of consolidated regiments, and about twelve hundred men occupied the cantonment at Plattsburg, on the peninsula between the lake and the Saranac, the works on Cumberland Head, and a position at Dead Creek, about two miles below Plattsburg. Macdonough, with his flotilla, was below Cumberland Head, watching the little British squadron, which lay at the Isle aux Têtes. The British had thirty-six hundred troops at La Colle; Meuron’s Swiss regiment, a thousand strong, was at L’Acadie, and two brigades of artillery and three hundred cavalry were at Chambly, making a total of five thousand five hundred and fifty men. There was also a reserve of two thousand regulars at Montreal.

Forsyth was greatly beloved by his followers. Hotly incensed because of the employment of savages by the British, they resolved to avenge the death of their own leader by taking the life of the leader of the Indians. A few days afterward some of them crossed the line and shot Mahew, that leader. He was taken to the house of Judge Moore, in Champlain, 8 where he died about a week afterward. 9

Very soon after the advance of the Americans to Chazy and Champlain, Sir George Prevost 10 arrived at the Isle aux Noix, where he had concentrated a body of veterans, and took chief command in person; and strong detachments of seamen were sent from Quebec, by order of Sir James L. Yeo, to strengthen the naval power at the same place. It was evident that a speedy invasion of Northern New York was in contemplation; and yet, with full information on the subject, the American government, as if fearful of a conquest of Canada whenever a spirited general was in command near assailable points, 11 ordered Izard at that critical moment, when danger was never more apparent, to march a larger portion of his force westward to co-operate with the Army of Niagara. It was an open invitation to invasion; and the army and people, expecting a great battle soon at the foot of Lake Champlain, and hoping for a decisive victory, were astonished by the order. The disappointed Izard could scarcely restrain his indignation. On the 11th of August he wrote: "I will make the movement you direct, if possible; but I shall do it with the apprehension of risking the force under my command, and with the certainty that every thing in this vicinity but the lately erected works at Plattsburg and Cumberland Head will, in less than three days after my departure, be in the possession of the enemy. He is in force superior to mine in my front; he daily threatens an attack on my position at Champlain; we are all in hourly expectation of a serious conflict. . . . Let me not be supposed to hesitate about executing any project which the government I have the honor to serve think proper to direct. My little army will do its duty." 12

Izard continued to protest against the movement as unwise and perilous, 13 but, like a true soldier, he made preparations for it as speedily as his limited transportation would allow. He set about four thousand men in motion by the way of the head of Lake George, Schenectady, and the Mohawk Valley, 14 and, as we have observed, arrived with them at Sackett’s Harbor at the middle of the month, and immediately started a portion of them by land and water [September 17, 1814.] for the Niagara frontier. 15 He left all his sick and convalescents, and about twelve hundred effective men, to garrison Platt’s Point, as the peninsula was called, and Cumberland Head.

Immediately after General Izard left, Macomb concentrated all his troops at Plattsburg, and worked vigorously in preparations for defense. He had, at the close of August, about three thousand five hundred troops under his control, 16 but they were in a weak condition, for there was only one organized battalion among them, and full fourteen hundred of them were invalids and non-combatants. The garrisons at the different points were composed of convalescents and new recruits; the condition of the ordnance and stores was chaotic, and the defensive works were all unfinished.

SAMPSON’S. 17

On the following day they moved forward to Chazy Village; and on the 5th they encamped near Sampson’s, now (1867) occupied as a tavern, about eight miles from Plattsburg. Captain Pring, with the British squadron, moved at the same time, anchored off Isle la Motte, and on the west side of that island erected a battery of three long 18-pounders to cover the landing of supplies for Prevost’s troops. Macomb, at the same time, was straining every muscle at his command in preparations for defense, for the impressment of trains by the British at Champlain and Chazy, and loading wagons with heavy baggage, indicated a speedy advance upon Plattsburg. By great exertions (the soldiers working day and night), the redoubts and block-houses were completed and manned before the enemy appeared before them, for he made short and cautious marches. These were on the high level peninsula between the Saranac and the lake, gently sloping toward the latter. The redoubts were on a curved line across the neck of the peninsula, and were named respectively Forts Brown, Moreau, 18 and Scott. The first-named stood on the bank of the river, at its head, about half way between the lower bridge at the village and near its mouth, and the upper bridge, a mile higher up, on the road leading to the Salmon River. Fort Moreau, the principal work, was half way between the river and the lake, fifty rods eastward of Fort Brown; and Fort Scott was near the bank of the lake. Northward of it were store-houses and a hospital. Between the lower bridge, and some distance above Fort Brown, the right bank of the Saranac is steep, and from fifty to sixty feet in height; and about sixty rods above the lower bridge it is cleft by a deep ravine that extends from the river almost to the lake. Near this ravine a block-house was built, and on the point near Foquet’s Hotel, overlooking the modern steam-boat landing, was another block-house. At the mouth of the river, a short distance from the lower bridge, stood (and yet stands) a stone mill, which served an excellent defensive purpose.

To create a spirit of emulation and zeal among the troops, General Macomb divided them into detachments, declaring in orders that each detachment was the garrison of its own work, and bound to finish it and defend it to the last extremity. Colonel Melancthon Smith, 19 with the Sixth and Twenty-ninth Regiments, was placed in command of Fort Moreau. Fort Brown was intrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Storrs, with detachments of the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Regiments; and Major Vinson, with the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Regiments, garrisoned Fort Scott. Captain Smith, of the Rifles, with a part of his company and the convalescents, occupied the block-house near the ravine; and Lieutenant Fowler, with a detachment of artillery, held the block-house on the Point. The light artillery, under Captain Leonard, were ordered to annoy the enemy whenever and wherever an opportunity should offer. The main body of Macomb’s army lay within the triangular portion of the peninsula formed by the ravine, the river, and the lake.

When the British advanced to Chazy, Macomb ordered Captain Sproull to take a position near Dead Creek Bridge, on the lake road, with two hundred of the Thirteenth Regiment 20 and two field-pieces, while Lieutenant Colonel Appling, the hero of Sandy Creek, was sent farther in advance, with a little more than a hundred riflemen, and a troop of New York Cavalry under Captain Stafford and Lieutenant M. M. Standish. Their business was to watch and annoy the enemy, and obstruct his march by felling trees in the road. It was their appearance that caused his halt at Sampson’s. General Mooers had called for the entire militia force of his district to repel the invasion, and Macomb made an earnest appeal for troops to Governor Chittenden, of Vermont.

On the morning of the 6th the British army, full fourteen thousand strong, mostly veteran troops, marched upon Plattsburg in two columns from their encampment near Sampson’s, the right crossing over to the Beekmantown Road, and the left following the lake shore that led to Dead Creek Bridge. General Edward Baynes was the adjutant general, and Sir Sidney Beckwith, who was conspicuous at Hampton and in Hampton Roads the previous year, 21 was quartermaster general. The right column was composed of General Powers’s brigade, supported by four companies of light infantry and a half brigade under Major General Robinson. The left was composed of General Brisbane’s brigade, and was led by him in person. The whole were under the immediate command of Major General De Rottenburg.

IRA HOWE’S, BEEKMANTOWN. 22

There the first collision occurred. The enemy came marching on rapidly, anticipating no resistance, when they were suddenly checked by a heavy volley of musketry from Wool’s little corps. The militia broke and fled toward Plattsburg, but the regulars stood firm. The enemy was in overwhelming numbers, but Wool moved slowly back toward Culver’s Hill, disputing the way inch by inch in desperate skirmishing. On that hill, a short distance below Beekmantown, he made a stand, and as the British advance ascended the slope, filling the entire road, he made another gallant attack upon them. Some of the militia had been rallied, and were in position behind the stone wall that bounded the road. 23 The enemy’s advance was driven back upon the main body, and their leader, Lieutenant Colonel Willington, of the Third Regiment of Buffs, and Ensign Chapman of the same regiment, were killed. 24 Captain Westropp, of the Fifty-eighth, was severely wounded. Captain Partridge, of the Essex militia, and several other Americans, were killed. The fight was severe, but very short. The heavy column of the enemy came pressing steadily onward with irresistible force, filling the entire roadway. At the same time Wool discovered a formidable movement to turn his flank and gain his rear, when he again fell back in order to Halsey’s Corners, within a mile and a half of Plattsburg Bridge. There he was joined at about eight o’clock in the morning by Captain Leonard with two pieces of artillery. These were immediately placed in battery at an angle in the road. They were masked by Wool’s infantry and a small body of militia, and as the enemy came steadily on in heavy mass, Leonard opened upon them, and his balls cut fearful lanes through their ranks.

Three times that battery hurled its deadly missiles through the lines of the foe, yet it did not check them. The British bugles sounded, and the men, throwing away their knapsacks, rushed forward at double quick to charge with the bayonet. Leonard was compelled to fly toward the village. He carried his guns with him, turning them occasionally upon the pursuing foe, and, crossing the Saranac at the lower bridge, he planted them in battery on a gentle eminence in the road, near the stone mill, to cover the crossing of the rest of the Americans if they should find it necessary to retreat. In the affair at Halsey’s Corners several of the British were killed. Among them was Lieutenant Kingsbury, of the Third Buffs, who was mortally wounded, and taken into the farm-house of the now (1867) venerable Isaac C. Platt, Esquire, near by, where he soon afterward died. 25

ISAAC C. PLATT’S RESIDENCE. 26

The British were checked at the village by the destruction of the lower bridge, whose timbers were used in the construction of a breastwork for the infantry. They took position in some store-houses near the Saranac. Upon these Captain Brooks hurled some hot shot, and burned out the enemy. Their light troops endeavored during the day to force a passage of the Saranac, but were each time repulsed by the guards at the bridge and a small company known as Aiken’s Volunteers, of Plattsburg, who were stationed in the stone mill (see engraving next page) already mentioned. These young men had been out on the Beekmantown Road in the morning and behaved gallantly, and they garrisoned that mill-citadel most admirably. 27 In the mean time a division of the British had pressed toward the upper bridge, where General Mooers and his militia, as we have observed, crossed the bridge, tore it up, and used its timbers for a breastwork. The enemy made extraordinary efforts to force a passage there, but Mooers and his men stood firm, and kept them at bay. Finding the passage of the stream impossible under the circumstances, Prevost ordered his troops to encamp upon an elevated ridge about a mile back from the river, and upon the high ground north of the village. He made his head-quarters at Allen’s farm-house on the ridge, 28 and gave orders for vigorous preparations for attack. Notwithstanding he was at the head of overwhelming numbers, the events of that day [September 6, 1814.] convinced him that the task before him was not a light one. He had lost, in killed and wounded, since the dawn, over two hundred men, while the loss of the Americans did not exceed forty-five. 29

OLD STONE MILL. 30

Prevost employed the time between the 7th and 11th in bringing up his battering trains and supplies, and in erecting several works that might command the river, the bay, and the American forts and block-houses on the peninsula. 31 The Americans in the mean time were not idle. They labored without ceasing in strengthening their works. They removed their sick and wounded to Crab Island, two miles distant, in the lake, and there erected a two 6-pound gun battery, and manned it with convalescents.

VIEW UP THE SARANAC, FROM FORT BROWN. 32

Between seven and eight o’clock the squadron was seen advancing, and at eight it rounded Cumberland Head. It consisted of the frigate Confiance, 38, Downie’s flagship; the brig Linnet, 16, Captain Pring; the sloops Chub, Lieutenant M‘Ghee, and Finch, 33 Lieutenant Hicks, carrying 11 guns each; and twelve gun-boats, manned by about forty-five men each. Eight of them carried 2 guns, and four of them 1 gun each. At that moment Macdonough’s squadron lay in Cumberland or Plattsburg Bay, on a line north from Crab Island, and almost parallel with the shore, at an average distance of two miles from it. On the extreme left, and at the head of the line, were two galleys at anchor, and next to them lay the brig Eagle, 26, Captain Henley, just within the point of Cumberland Head. Next south of her was the Saratoga, 26, Macdonough’s flag-ship; and the next in line was the schooner Ticonderoga, 17, Lieutenant Cassin. Next southward in the line lay the Preble, Lieutenant Charles Budd, armed with 7 guns. 34 This vessel lay so near the shoal extending northeast from Crab Island, that it was impossible for the enemy to turn that end of the line. In the rear of these larger vessels were ten gun-boats or galleys, six of them mounting one long 24-pounder and one 18-pound Columbiad each, and the other four carrying each a 12-pounder. These were so arranged as to fill up the openings between the larger vessels in the line, making the order of battle in two lines, about forty rods apart. The larger vessels were at anchor, while the gun-boats were kept in position by the use of oars. 35

The American line of battle had been formed with great skill by the young commander, reference being had to the conformation of the land. It extended completely across the entrance to Plattsburg Bay from Crab Island to Cumberland Head, and the enemy, rounding the latter, was compelled to approach the American squadron with his bows on, giving the latter a great advantage at the beginning. 36 The first vessel that made its appearance was a sloop, which, it is said, carried a company of amateurs, who kept out of the action that ensued. It was immediately followed by the Finch, which led the van of the British squadron, and made for the right of the American line, in the direction of the Preble, near Crab Island. At the same time the Chub moved toward the head or left of the Americans, near Cumberland Head, keeping well to the windward of the Eagle, to support the Linnet in a direct attack on that vessel, while the gun-boats coming up in order, their commanders received from Commodore Downie final instructions for action. He then attempted to lay the Confiance athwart the Saratoga, while the Finch and the gun-boats should attack the Ticonderoga and Preble. He was baffled by shifting winds, and was compelled to anchor his vessel within two cables’ length of its antagonist.

Macdonough, in the mean time, had thoroughly prepared to receive the enemy. When his vessels were cleared for action, springs placed on his cables, and all was in readiness, he knelt upon the deck of the Saratoga, near one of its heaviest guns, with his officers and men around him, and, in few words, asked Almighty God for aid, and committed the issue into his hands. 37 He arose with assured courage, and as the enemy came bearing down upon him, his vessels sprang their broadsides to bear, and the Eagle opened the action by hurling the first shot. It discharged in quick succession its four long 18-pounders in broadside. This was followed by the fire of a long 24-pounder on the Saratoga, which the young and gallant commodore had sighted himself. The ball entered the outer hawse-hole of the Confiance, the enemy’s flagship, and went crashing through every obstacle the entire length of her deck, killing several men on its way, and demolishing the wheel. The Linnet, as she was passing to attack the Eagle, gave the Saratoga a broadside, but without serious effect. One of her shots demolished a hen-coop on the Saratoga, in which was a young gamecock which some of the seamen had lately brought on board. The released fowl, startled by the noise of cannon, flew upon a gun-slide, and, clapping his wings, crowed lustily and defiantly. The sailors cheered, and the incident, appearing to them as ominous of victory for the Americans, strengthened the courage of all. 38

The Confiance made no reply to the Saratoga’s savage 24-pounder until she had secured a desirable position, notwithstanding the entire American line had become engaged in the combat. When ready, she exhibited a sheet of flame. Her entire larboard broadside guns, consisting of sixteen 24-pounders, double-shotted, leveled point-blank range, coolly sighted, and favored by still water, were discharged at one time. The effect was terrible. The Saratoga shivered from round-top to hull as with an ague, and forty of her people, or almost one fifth of her complement, were disabled. But the stunning blow was felt only for a moment. Almost immediately Macdonough resumed the conflict, and the fire of the Saratoga was steady, and gallantly conducted. Among her lost was her first lieutenant, Peter Gamble, who was on his knees sighting a bow-gun, when a shot entered the port, split the quoin, drove a part of it against his breast, and laid him dead without breaking the skin. Fifteen minutes afterward an American ball struck the muzzle of a 24-pounder on board the Confiance, dismounted it, sending it bodily inboard against the groin of Commodore Downie, killing him also without breaking the skin. 39

The battle had now become general, steady, and active between the larger vessels. The Chub, while manœuvring near the head of the American line, received a broadside from the gallant Henley, 40 of the Eagle, which so crippled her that she drifted helplessly, and, after receiving a shot from the Saratoga, she struck, and was taken possession of by Mr. Platt, one of the midshipmen of that vessel, 41 who had her towed into Plattsburg Bay, and anchored near the mouth of the Saranac. She had suffered very severely. Almost half of her people were killed or wounded.

An hour later the Finch was driven from her position by the Ticonderoga, commanded by the intrepid Lieutenant Cassin; and, being badly injured, drifted upon Crab Island shoal of rocks, and grounded. The invalid corps on the island brought their little two-gun battery to bear on her, when she struck, and surrendered to this small band of convalescents. 42

The British gun-boats now entered vigorously into the action, and soon compelled the Preble, Lieutenant Budd, to cut her cables and flee to a safer place near the shore, where she anchored, and was of no farther service in the fight. This success emboldened the British galleys, and they made a combined and furious attack on the Ticonderoga, fourteen in number, with an average of fifty men in each. 43 Cassin walked the taifrail in a storm of grape and canister shot, watching the movements of the assailants, and directing effective discharges of musket-balls and other light missiles, which kept the enemy at bay. 44 Several times they were within a few feet of the sides of the Ticonderoga with the intention of boarding her. They behaved with the utmost gallantry, but with equal gallantry the Americans repulsed them. The Ticonderoga maintained her position, and covered her extremity of the line to the last, winning from the commodore and all beholders unqualified praise for her commander and people. 45

VIEW AT THE LIGHT-HOUSE ON CUMBERLAND HEAD. 46

Finding they were not likely to be pursued, the galleys bent their sweeps with energy and escaped down the lake, followed by a store-sloop which had been lying during the battle near the point of Cumberland Head on which the light-house now stands. The American vessels were too much crippled to follow, and were, moreover, engaged in the humane business of saving the survivors of the Confiance and the Linnet, which were reported to be in a sinking condition. 47 "I could only look at the enemy’s galleys going off in a shattered condition," Macdonough wrote to the Secretary of War [September 13, 1814.], "for there was not a mast in either squadron that could stand to make sail on; the lower rigging, being nearly all shot away, hung down as if it had just been placed over the mast-heads." "Our masts, yards, and sails were so shattered," wrote Midshipman Lee, of the Confiance, who was wounded in the action, "that one looked like so many bunches of matches and the other like a bundle of rags." 48

PLAN OF THE NAVAL ACTION ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 49

For two hours and twenty minutes this severe naval battle raged, while the thunder of cannon, the hiss of rockets, the scream of bombs, and the rattle of musketry were heard on the shore. It was a sublime sight, and was beheld by hundreds of spectators on the headlands of the Vermont shore, who greeted the victory with shouts. 50 It was a battle characterized by a vigor and destructiveness not excelled by any during the war, indeed seldom equaled any where or at any time. 51 The victory for the Americans was complete and substantial; and from the Saratoga, half an hour after the Linnet struck and the galleys fled, Macdonough sent the following dispatch ashore in a gig, to be forwarded to the Secretary of the Navy:

"SIR, – The Almighty has been pleased to grant us a signal victory on Lake Champlain in the capture of one frigate, one brig, and two sloops of war of the enemy." Two days afterward he sent Lieutenant Commanding Cassin to the Secretary of the Navy with a more detailed yet brief account of the battle, in which he stated that the Saratoga had fifty round shot in her hull, and the Confiance one hundred. and five. He added, "The Saratoga was twice set on fire by hot shot from the enemy’s ship." 52

Very few officers or men on the Saratoga and Confiance were uninjured. Indeed, the same might be said of those of the other large vessels of both parties. Macdonough was twice prostrated upon the deck, and his venerable sailing-master, Peter Brum, had his clothes nearly torn off by a splinter while winding the ship. 53 Acting Lieutenant Lavallette had a shot-box, on which he was standing, driven from under him by a ball, and was knocked down by the flying head of one of the seamen. 54 Lieutenant Gamble, as we have seen, was killed at the beginning of the action. Lieutenant Stansbury suddenly disappeared from the bulwarks, and two days afterward his body, cut in two, rose to the surface.

Joseph Smith, first lieutenant of the Eagle, received a severe wound, but returned to his quarters during the action. 55 The British officers suffered severely. Commodore Downie, Captain Anderson, of the Marines, Midshipman Gunn, of the Confiance, and Lieutenant Paul and Boatswain Jackson, of the Linnet, were also killed, and many others were wounded. The wife of the steward of the Confiance was also killed. 56 The entire loss of the Americans was one hundred and ten, of whom fifty-two were killed. The total British loss was more than two hundred. 57 Macdonough received the officers of the captured vessels with great courtesy of manner and speech. When they offered him their swords, he instantly replied, "Gentlemen, your gallant conduct makes you worthy to wear your weapons; return them to their scabbards." They did so, and they all walked the deck of the victorious Saratoga, American and English officers, more in the character of friends than of enemies. Lieutenant Lavallette, who had taken formal possession of the Confiance, was soon directed to prepare the prisoners for Crab Island, and before sunset all was quiet on the lake. Thus ended the famous BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. The British vessels were taken to Whitehall, at the head of the lake, and scuttled. The Saratoga shared the same fate afterward. I saw the remains of this vessel and the Confiance there as late as 1850.

BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG. (From an old print.) 58

We have observed that while the roar of the battle-storm was heard on the water, its thunders were bellowing over the land. According to arrangement, when the pennants of the British fleet were seen over Cumberland Head, a part of the British land force, under Major General Robinson, moved in three columns to force their way across the Saranac at the site of the two bridges, and a ford at Pike’s cantonment, three miles from the mouth of the stream, and carry the American works by storm. 59 When the first gun was fired on the lake, the British land batteries were opened, and, under, cover of the shot and shell which they hurled toward the American works, their three assailing columns moved. At the lower bridge they were repulsed by the guards, block-houses, and artillery of the forts, served by Captains Brooks, Richards, and Smith, and Lieutenants Mountfort, Smyth, and Cromwell. At the upper bridge the riflemen and pickets, under Captain Grosvenor and Lieutenants Hamilton and Riley, aided by some militia, successfully disputed their passage. They were a little more successful at the upper ford, where the Clinton and Essex militia, under Major General Mooers and Brigadier General Wright, were stationed. After being driven back several times with considerable loss, some companies of the British pushed across the stream, then shallow and rapid, firing briskly by platoons as they advanced, but doing very little harm. 60 The militia fell back. They were soon joined by a large detachment of Vermont Volunteers, and a party of artillery with a field-piece, under Lieutenant Sumter.

The flying companies were now rallied, and drawn up in battle array to meet the pursuing foe, when Walworth, one of Mooers’s aids, 61 came dashing up, his horse flecked with its own foam, and gave them the joyful intelligence that the British fleet had just surrendered. These glad tidings were greeted with three hearty cheers. At the same moment they observed the pursuers with their backs turned, and making their way in haste toward the Saranac.

Sir George Prevost, who always played the coward when near danger, according to British historians, had become terribly alarmed, and recalled these vigorous and only successful troops. He had experienced "the extreme mortification," he said, "to hear the shout of victory from the American works" when the fleet surrendered on the lake. They had been loud and mighty cheers, iterated and reiterated by corps after corps, as the eye and ear caught knowledge of the victory; and Sir George wisely saw, as he said, that "farther prosecution of the service was become impracticable." He had assumed the position of co-operator with the fleet rather than principal, leaving to Downie the brunt of the service, but ready to receive and wear the garlands of honor which might be won. Seeing the British flags humbled on all their ships, and their gun-boats fleeing, he resolved to fall back toward the Canada border, and halt until he should ascertain the use the Americans intended to make of their naval ascendency just acquired on Lake Champlain. 62 It was a wise determination. Notwithstanding his number was overwhelming, 63 Prevost was really in peril. He might have crushed Macomb and captured the post at Plattsburg, but it would have been at the expense of many lives without obtaining any permanent advantage. The British had lost the lake absolutely, and without any fair promise of its recovery; and the militia of all that region were thoroughly aroused, and were rapidly gathering. Governor Chittenden, of Vermont, had issued a patriotic address at the beginning of the invasion, calling upon the militia of his state to hasten to the aid of their brethren across the lake. It had been heartily responded to, and at the close of the memorable day of the battle not less than twenty-five hundred Green Mountain boys were on the Saranac, under Major General Strong. The militia of Washington and Warren counties were also streaming toward Plattsburg at the call of General Mooers, and re-enforcements of regulars were on their way. Prevost’s army would very soon have been equaled in numerical strength, and perhaps surrounded and supplies from Canada cut off. He perceived these dangers when the navy was lost, and the moment the forces under General Robinson returned to camp, he made preparations to abandon the siege, notwithstanding General Brisbane offered to cross the Saranac in force and carry the American works in twenty minutes. The fire from his batteries were kept up until sunset, and Fort Brown, under the immediate command of Lieutenant Mountfort, 64 sent back responses with great spirit. 65 So excellent was the firing that the British believed that French artillerists were employed by the Americans.

RUINS OF FORT BROWN. 66

When night fell Prevost caused his cannon to be withdrawn from the batteries. At nine o’clock in the evening he sent them Canada-ward, with all the baggage for which he could find transportation, and at two o’clock in the morning of the 12th the entire army fled with a precipitation wholly unaccountable at the time. 67 The sick and wounded, and a vast amount of munitions of war, were left behind; and the foe reached Chazy, eight miles distant, before the Americans were apprised of the movement. Light troops, volunteers, and militia, under General Mooers, 68 at once started in pursuit. They made a few prisoners, but heavy rains compelled them to relinquish the chase. Prevost halted and encamped at Champlain, and on the 24th left the territory of the United States, and retired to Montreal with the main army. Thus ended the BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG and the second invasion of New York. Many of the British deserted, and the loss of Sir George after he crossed the frontier line, in killed, wounded, missing, and deserters, did not fall much short of two thousand, according to careful estimates made at the time. The American loss was less than one hundred and fifty. Only one commissioned officer, Lieutenant George W. Runk, was mortally wounded. He died the next day.

The events on land and water at Plattsburg on the 11th of September, 1814, produced a thrill of intense joy throughout the country, and with delight the people read the stirring General Orders in which, on the 14th of September, Macomb announced the result to his little army. 69 Spontaneous honors and praises were given by the people to him and Macdonough conjointly. 70 Bonfires and illuminations blazed in almost every city and village in the land, and the recent disaster at the national capital was almost unthought of for the moment. Legislative resolves, artillery, oratory, and song 71 were pressed into the service of rendering homage to the two heroes and their men. The newspapers teemed with eulogies, and at all public gatherings and entertainments their names and deeds were mentioned with applause. Governor Tompkins, in the name of the State of New York, presented General Macomb with a superb sword. De Witt Clinton, Mayor of New York, presented him, in the name of the Corporation, the "freedom of the city" in a gold box similar in character to the one given to General Brown; 72 and he was requested by the same body to sit for his portrait, to be placed in the gallery of distinguished men. Congress gave him the thanks of the nation, and voted him a gold medal. 73

MACDONOUGH’S FARM-HOUSE ON CUMBERLAND HEAD. 74

It was on the borders of Cumberland, or Plattsburg Bay, and the farm-house upon it overlooked the scene of his gallant exploits. The cities of New York and Albany each gave the hero a valuable lot of land. "Thus," said Macdonough to a friend, while tears stood in his eyes, "in one month, from a poor lieutenant I became a rich man." Congress gave him the thanks of the nation, and with his brave commanders, Henley and Cassin, voted him a gold medal, with suitable devices and inscriptions. 75

DOWNIE’S GRAVE. 76

Three days after the battle, when it was ascertained that the British were making their way toward the St. Lawrence, General Macomb discharged the New York and Vermont militia, and the solemn rites of burial were accorded to the dead of both nations. Fifteen officers, including Commodore Downie, were laid in the Plattsburg Burying-ground, and a neat marble slab, with the name of the commemorated cut upon it, was placed at the head of each grave. On each side of Downie’s grave a pine-tree was planted. These were noble in stature when I made the annexed sketch, but one has since disappeared. A few years ago a near relation of the British commander laid a recumbent marble slab, suitably inscribed, upon brick walls, over his remains. 77 Around it are the graves of the other officers.

I visited the theatre of the British invasion of Northern New York, and points of interest at Plattsburg and in the vicinity, in August, 1860. I have already mentioned the passing of a night at Rouse’s Point 78 Village after visiting La Colle Mill, and journeying on the next morning toward Plattsburg. 79 I went to Champlain, five miles south of the Canada border, by railway, and there strolled over the place of Dearborn and Wilkinson’s encampments on the hill eastward of the railway station, then (1860) the land of Francis Nye. I also went to the site of Izard’s encampment, on rising ground south of the village, and of his battery on the brow of a hill, then (1860) the property of Noadiah Moore. After sketching the mansion of Judge Moore, which was used for officers’ quarters by both parties, 80 I left for Plattsburg in a light wagon, accompanied by a very intelligent elderly gentleman of Champlain, 81 whose name I regret I can not now recall. He was familiar with the whole region, and the events and localities which make it notable.

We passed through Chazy, upon the Little Chazy River. Just before reaching it, we saw at his house Captain Hiram Ferris, an old lake pilot, who gave us some of his reminiscences of adventure as commander of a sloop in which Vermont militia were taken across the lake to Plattsburg before the battle. We rode on to Sampson’s, and dined there; 82 and a mile southward of the tavern, the place of the British encampment from the 5th to the 6th of September [1814.] was pointed out to us, on the farm of Mr. Phelps. We soon afterward turned westward toward Beekmantown, 83 and in that little village, and upon Culver’s Hill southward of it, we spent about two hours. I sketched the house of Ira Howe 84 in the upper part of the village; and in the delightful shadow of grand old elms, which were flourishing trees in the time of the war, I made the sketch on the preceding page, on the left of which is seen the stone meeting-house, built by the Methodists in 1830, and in the distance the road passing over Culver’s Hill, on which Wool fought his second battle with the invaders on the morning of the 6th [September, 1814.]. A little south of the church (at a spot indicated by the two figures), we were shown a spring, by the side of the road, near which Colonel Willington was buried; and directly in front of Francis Culver’s house, on Culver’s Hill, a flat rock was pointed out as the spot where Willington fell. 85 It is said that the stains of his blood were upon it a long time. There, too, we saw the moss-covered stone fence, built before the war, which formed an admirable shelter for the American militia during the fight on the hill. 86

Plattsburg was now eight miles distant, and the long summer day was passing away. We rode on, without stopping, by Halsey’s Corners, where Leonard made a stand with his cannon, 87 and at near sunset entered Plattsburg. I became the guest of a kinsman (Philander C. Moore), and passed a part of the evening profitably with P. S. Palmer, Esq., the historian of Lake Champlain.

At an early hour the next morning, accompanied by my kinsman, I went out to visit the historical localities in and about Plattsburg; and just at twilight, after a day of incessant labor, we returned, having fully accomplished the object of my errand. We first rode up to the site of Pike’s cantonment (where the British forced a passage of the Saranac), crossing the river at the upper bridge, and traversing a rough road most of the way for about two miles. The cantonment was on a low, narrow plain at the foot of rapids in the river, which are seen in the little sketch on page 874.