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SACKING OF HAMPTON.

defended by about 450 militia, against a British flotilla, with bombs and rockets, commanded by Admiral Cockburn; but Sir Sidney Beckwith coming to the assistance of the Admiral with 2,000 men, succeeded in capturing the place, which was forthwith abandoned to the soldiery, who perpetrated outrages on the inhabitants, which would have disgraced the darkest ages of barbarism.

After this great victory and triumph, Admiral Cockburn, sailed with his squadron up the Potomac, to within 70 miles of Washington; but finding the fortifications on the river in a good state of defence, he retired. He next proceeded up the bay, and threatened Annapolis and Baltimore; but not deeming it prudent to attack those places, he proceeded to the south, pursuing his system of plunder and devastation on the coast of the Carolinas and Georgia.

These outrages, which were intended to render the war unpopular with the Americans, had a directly contrary effect, infusing new spirit and energy into their subsequent operations, and giving a tone to the public feeling, which was the only requisite hitherto wanting towards the successful conduct of the war.

The blockade of the northern ports fell into better hands. Commodore Hardy, who commanded the squadron, which blockaded New London, and held the frigates United States and Macedonian in a state of inaction there during the latter period of the war, conducted his operations in a spirit of comparative forbearance and humanity. His chivalry, however, was not so generous as to permit his acceptance of the challenge from the commanders of those frigates, offering to meet the Endymion and Statira, ships of the blockading squadron, of equal force. The uniform result of previous meetings of this kind was too ominous of disgrace to the British arms.

The success of the Americans in their naval encounters with the enemy was not less remarkable than it had been during the preceding year. On the 24th of February, Captain Lawrence, in the sloop of war Hornet, fell in with the brig of war Peacock, and after a close action of fifteen minutes, compelled her to strike her colours and hoist a signal of distress. The firing of the Hornet instantly ceased, and the boats were hoisted out for the purpose of saving the British crew, as the vessel was in a sinking state. In spite of the most active exertions on the part of their generous enemies, thirteen of the British went down with the ship, and four of

AFFAIR OF THE SHANNON AND CHESAPEAKE.

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the Hornet's crew, who were rendering assistance, suffered the same fate.

On his return to the United States, Captain Lawrence was promoted to the command of the frigate Chesapeake, then lying in Boston harbour. Soon after taking command of his ship, Lawrence received a challenge from Captain Broke, of the British frigate Shannon, to meet him in single combat, ship to ship, engaging that the Tenedos, which was then blockading Boston, in company with the Shannon, should be out of the way during the action. The challenge was promptly accepted. The ships met; the Chesapeake was taken, and the gallant Lawrence, with his lieutenant, Ludlow, fell in the action. These frigates were nearly equal in weight of metal, the Shannon mounting fifty-two guns and the Chesapeake forty-eight; but the latter undoubtedly laboured under great disadvantages in the undisciplined and half intoxicated state of the crew, just out of port. Her capture, however, was a source of unbounded exultation to the British.

In May, 1813, Captain Allen, in the brig Argus, having conveyed Mr. Crawford, the American ambassador, to France, began a cruise in the British channel, during which he captured and destroyed British vessels and cargoes to the amount of two millions of dollars. He was then assailed by the Pelican sloop of war, of twenty guns, and sustained a severe action of forty-three minutes, when the British frigate Sea Horse heaving in sight, the Argus struck. Captain Allen was mortally wounded during the engagement.

In September, the United States brig Enterprise encountered the British brig Boxer off the coast of Maine, and after an action of forty-five minutes compelled her to surrender. Both the commanders fell in the action, and were buried together, with military honours, in Portland. The Boxer was superior to her antagonist in tonnage, men and guns. She lost twenty-five killed, and fourteen wounded; while the Enterprise lost four killed, and eleven wounded.

The British had employed the Indians as allies from the commencement of the war, and had encouraged rather than repressed their propensity to use their prisoners in the most barbarous manner. It was not till the summer of this year that the Six Nations declared war against England, and united their arms with those of the United States. In accepting their aid, it was made a strict condition, that they should treat their captives according to the usage of civilised nations,

322

DEFENCE OF FORT SANDUSKY.

and when a party of them, assisted by the militia, routed the enemy near Fort George, the prisoners being committed to their charge, were treated with the greatest humanity, thus completely exploding the apology set up by the British officers, that they could not control their allies.

The events on the north-western frontier were now assuming an interesting character. Both the British and Americans were strenuously engaged in preparing a naval force to be employed on Lake Erie; and at the same time an attempt was made on Forts Stephenson and Meigs, by Colonel Proctor, with a large force of British and Indians. Towards the end of July, the enemy appeared in the neighbourhood of Fort Meigs, and endeavoured by a variety of stratagems to withdraw the Americans from their works into the open field. Not succeeding in this, on the 1st of August Proctor laid siege to Fort Stephenson on the Sandusky river, with a force of 500 regulars and 800 Indians. The garrison consisted of only 160 men, with a single piece of cannon; but they were commanded by Major Croghan, a young officer, distinguished by the gallantry suited to his age, and the firmness and judgment of a veteran. He had been directed to abandon the fort on the approach of a superior force, but confiding in his own resources and the courage of his men, he dared to assume the responsibility of defending it.

Having poured into the fort a galling cannonade of shot and shells for two days, the British advanced at two different points to assault the works. One of the advancing parties, consisting of three hundred and fifty men, commanded by Colonel Short, was received with a heavy fire, and eighty of them, having leaped over the pickets into the ditch, were all killed or captured, Short himself being among the slain. The remainder were repulsed. The other party marched up a ravine towards the fort, and were received with a discharge of slugs and balls from the six-pounder, which had been masked and reserved for their reception, and now mowed them down with prodigious slaughter. This spirited resistance so completely dismayed the enemy, that Proctor abandoned his dead and wounded, and fled for safety. The Indians were so disappointed at missing the plunder and scalps of the garrison, that they forthwith began to abandon their allies in great numbers.

Major Croghan, for his brilliant services in this affair, received the appointment of lieutenant-colonel by brevet in

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the regular army; and the ladies of Chilicothe presented him with a splendid sword. The repulse which he had given the British and Indians saved Fort Meigs from an assault, and completely relieved the frontier to the south of the strait at Detroit, from its most troublesome enemy.

General Harrison, who had the chief command on the north-western frontier, was now occupied in preparing his troops for a descent upon the enemy's territory, as soon as the squadron in preparation on Lake Erie should be ready to afford him the facilities of transportation. Early in September Commodore Perry, who had in a few months succeeded in constructing from the trees of the neighbouring forests, a respectable squadron, sailed from Erie in pursuit of the enemy, who had hitherto commanded the lake. His fleet consisted of nine small vessels mounting in all fifty-six guns. That of the British, under Commodore Barclay, consisted of six larger vessels mounting sixty-nine guns. His complement of men was also greater than that of Perry.

On the 10th of September the fleets met off Put-in-bay. At the commencement of the action the Lawrence, the flagship, was attacked by the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, and as the wind was too light to allow the remainder of the squadron to come up to the commodore's support, he had to sustain their fire for two hours, when the Lawrence being reduced to a sinking condition, he committed her to the charge of Lieutenant Yarnall, and descending into a boat, passed through a shower of cannon balls and bullets, and transferred his flag to the Niagara. The wind now freshening, the remainder of the American vessels were brought into action, and soon compelled the surrender of the whole British fleet.

This victory being the first obtained over a squadron, and bringing with it the most important advantages, occasioned greater rejoicing among the Americans than any which had preceded it. The gallant Perry was loaded with honours and distinctions, and his victory was proudly recorded in the annals and celebrated in the songs of his countrymen.

On receiving intelligence of Perry's success, General Harrison, who had been reinforced by a strong body of Kentucky militia under governor Shelby, embarked on the lake, and soon arrived at Malden. This post had been abandoned by the British, who had ascended the river Thames as far as the Moravian villages. Here they were overtaken by General

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BATTLE OF THE THAMES.

Harrison, on the 5th of October, who succeeded in bringing them to action, and gained a complete victory. Colonel Proctor saved himself by flight, leaving his camp equipage and papers. Six hundred of the British were made prisoners. The Indians are said to have borne the brunt of the battle, and fallen in great numbers. Their great chief, Tecumseh, was among the slain in the battle of the Thames, having been shot by Colonel Johnson. This victory restored to the Americans all the posts which had been surrendered by General Hull.

The British had been no less successful in exciting the hostility of the Indians at the southern extremity of the Union than at the north; and a visit of Tecumseh at the commencement of the war had stirred up among them a spirit of blind fanaticism which manifested itself by a series of hostilities, carried on by the Creeks and Seminoles against the frontier inhabitants of Georgia. This was repressed, however, for the time, by an incursion of 2,500 Tennessee volunteers, led by General Jackson, in the fall of 1812. Their hostility now burst forth with fresh violence.

At Fort Mimms, in the Tensaw settlement, a party of three hundred inhabitants who had fled thither for safety, were surprised on the 30th of August by six hundred Indians, who broke into the fort, drove the people into the houses which it inclosed, and set them on fire. Only seventeen escaped the general massacre.

An army of 3,500 militia, principally from Tennessee, was speedily assembled and placed under the command of General Jackson, for the purpose of chastising the authors of this unprovoked outrage. On the 2nd of November a detachment of this force under General Coffee attacked the Creeks at Talluschatches, destroyed 200 of their warriors, burnt their town, and captured 86 prisoners.

On the 8th, General Jackson attacked a large body of the Creeks, who were assembled at Taladega, and defeated them; the Indians leaving 290 of their warriors on the field, and retreating to the mountains.

On the 18th of November, General White was equally successful at the Hillibee village, where, after a bloody encounter, he defeated the Creeks, 60 of their warriors being killed, and 256 made prisoners, without the loss of a single man on the side of the Americans. General Floyd inflicted a similar defeat on the Indians at Autossee on the 29th of November.