Many nineteenth-century prints show Master Commandant Oliver H. Perry in a boat shifting his command to the U.S. Brig Niagara, but this unusual engraving takes a wider view, showing the British flagship Detroit on the left, the abandoned U.S. Brig Lawrence in the center, and the Niagara on the right. But there should be only four seamen in Perry’s boat, and the American officer was undoubtedly sitting rather than standing. (R. M. Devens, American Progress: or the Great Events of the Greatest Century)
Taking command of the Niagara, Perry ran up his battle flag and sailed back into the heart of the British squadron. As he approached, the two main British ships tried to wind around to bring fresh batteries to bear, but in the process the Queen Charlotte rammed the Detroit, and thereafter neither ship could move. The Niagara, aided by two of Perry’s schooners, fired broadside after broadside into the two immobile British ships. Three hours into the battle, the larger British ships had been destroyed, and the first and second in command on all six British vessels had been killed or wounded. Barclay himself had to be carried below. His good arm was now mangled, and he had sustained a deep thigh wound as well as several lesser wounds. Four of the British ships struck their colors. Two others tried to escape but were run down and forced to surrender. When the victors boarded the Detroit, they found a pet bear lapping up blood on the deck and two Indians (who were supposed to be musketeers in the tops) hiding in the hold. The Americans had suffered 125 killed and wounded, the British 135.39
Perry’s victory on Lake Erie was a tribute to his courage and coolness under fire and to the effective use of his superior firepower. On the back of an old letter he wrote a brief note to Harrison that added more luster to his name: “We have met the enemy and they are ours: Two Ships, two Brigs[,] one Schooner & one Sloop.”40 Perry’s triumph was celebrated all over the nation. “Every demonstration of joy and admiration,” reported the secretary of the navy, “was exhibited as far and as fast as the roar of cannon and splendour of illumination could travel.”41
To show its appreciation, Congress voted Perry and his men $260,000 in prize money and three months’ pay. (The largest share of prize money—$12,750—actually went to Chauncey, who was nominally in command of the forces on both lakes. Perry got $12,140, Elliott $7,140, and the other officers and men sums ranging from $215 to $2,295.)42 The British Naval Chronicle called Perry’s victory “a miscarriage, of minor importance,” but British officials knew better.43 The battle was the most important fought on the Great Lakes during the war. It changed the balance of power in the West and enabled the United States to recover all that it had lost in 1812.
Harrison Invades Canada
With the defeat of Barclay’s squadron and the British supply situation at Detroit becoming ever more desperate, Procter decided to withdraw along the Thames River to Burlington Heights (now Hamilton). “The Loss of the Fleet is a most calamitous Circumstance,” he wrote. “I do not see the least Chance of occupying to advantage my present extensive Position.”44 The Indians bitterly opposed this abandonment of their lands. Tecumseh upbraided Procter, comparing him to “a fat animal, that carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted . . . drops it between his legs and runs off.”45 But the only concession that he could win from the British general was a promise to make a stand somewhere on the Thames.
While Perry repaired his squadron so that it could be used to transport men and supplies, Harrison raised additional troops. Already he had persuaded Governor Isaac Shelby of Kentucky to take the field in person. Known as “Old King’s Mountain” because of a battle he had fought in during the Revolutionary War, the sixty-three-year-old Shelby delivered a stirring plea urging Kentuckians to turn out for service. “I will lead you to the field of battle,” the governor’s widely circulated handbill proclaimed, “and share with you the dangers and honors of the campaign.”46 More than 3,000 Kentuckians—many of whom were “but lads and quite careless”—responded to the call.47 This raised Harrison’s total strength to about 5,500 men. Although a large number of Ohioans responded to a similar call from their governor, these men had to be turned away—much to their chagrin—because of a lack of supplies to sustain them.48
Harrison’s army rendezvoused on the Detroit River in late September 1813. Most of the Kentucky troops had brought their horses, which were left in a large corral constructed for that purpose. Only 1,200 volunteers under the command of Colonel Richard M. Johnson (who was still a member of Congress) were permitted to take their mounts into battle. The Americans occupied Detroit and Fort Amherstburg, which the British had abandoned in their flight to the interior. Although 150 Pennsylvania militia refused to cross the border, the Kentucky militia had no such qualms. Thus most of Harrison’s army crossed into Canada, and the pursuit of Procter began in earnest.
Harrison did not expect to catch up with the British army, but Procter moved at a leisurely pace and failed to destroy all the bridges behind him so that his straggling Indian allies could follow. The Americans soon came across baggage and supplies discarded by the British. They also captured, on the Thames, two gunboats carrying Procter’s spare ammunition. With the Americans closing in, Procter decided to make a stand near Moraviantown, about fifty miles east of Detroit. Procter’s force consisted of 800 regulars (although only about 600 were fit for service) and perhaps 500 Indians. The British were arrayed in open order in two thin lines extending from the river to a large swamp, while the Indians, headed by Tecumseh, took positions in the underbrush near the swamp on the British right flank.
The Battle of the Thames and Death of Tecumseh
Harrison approached the enemy on October 5 with 3,000 men, including Johnson’s regiment. Finding the British lines thin, Johnson asked for permission to make a frontal assault with his mounted troops. Although a cavalry charge like this was unusual, Harrison acceded to the request. “The American backwoodsmen ride better in the woods than any other people,” he said. “I was persuaded too that the enemy would be quite unprepared for the shock and that they could not resist it.”49
Shouting “Remember the Raisin!”—the rallying cry commemorating the massacre after the American defeat at Frenchtown—the mounted men galloped toward the enemy. The right wing, led by Richard M. Johnson’s brother James, burst through the British lines and then dismounted and caught the British in a crossfire, forcing them to surrender, although Procter managed to escape to the east with around 200 men. “It is really a novel thing,” said an American officer, “that raw militia stuck upon horses, with muskets in their hands instead of sabres, should be able to pierce British lines with such complete effect.”50
Richard M. Johnson led the left wing of the attack against the Indians. Johnson had volunteered to be part of the advance, known as “the forlorn hope” because the chances of surviving were considered slim. Johnson received several disabling wounds but managed to kill an Indian—thought to be Tecumseh—who tried to finish him off. (This feat helped catapult Johnson into the vice presidency in 1836.) The Indians continued their resistance for a while longer, but when word spread that Tecumseh had been killed, the natives disappeared into the wilderness. The Americans returned to the battlefield the next day, and after several British officers confirmed that one of the swollen corpses was Tecumseh, they took his clothing, hair, and even patches of his skin for souvenirs. “I [helped] kill Tecumseh and [helped] skin him,” a veteran of the campaign recalled a half century later, “and brot Two pieces of his yellow hide home with me to my Mother & Sweet Harts.”51
The Battle of the Thames (known as the Battle of Moraviantown in Canada) was a great victory for the United States. Although the casualties on both sides were light, close to 600 British soldiers were captured. The Americans also captured a large quantity of war material, including a cannon that had been taken at Saratoga in 1777 and then lost by Hull in 1812. Procter had mismanaged the retreat and thus sacrificed his army. Although he tried to blame the disaster on his subordinates, a military court convicted him of misconduct and sentenc
ed him to be reprimanded publicly and suspended from duty for six months. The Prince Regent rescinded the suspension, but the reprimand stood, and Procter was never again given a command.52
This highly romanticized print, which was produced during Andrew Jackson’s presidency in the 1830s, shows the climax of the Battle of the Thames on the British right flank, when Richard M. Johnson killed Tecumseh. (Lithograph by John Dorival. Library of Congress)
Harrison and Perry worked up a plan to retake Mackinac, but bad weather forced them to abandon the scheme.53 Preserving this post helped the British retain the allegiance of some of their Indian allies, but the Battle of the Thames had nonetheless done profound damage to their cause. British power and influence in the Old Northwest was undermined, and Tecumseh’s Indian confederacy was shattered beyond repair. Many Indians abandoned the British, and in July 22, 1814, Harrison joined with Lewis Cass in signing a treaty with several bands of the Northwestern tribes—the Miamis, Potawatomis, Kickapoos, and Ottawas—that bound them to wage war against Britain.54 By this time Harrison had resigned his army commission in disgust over Armstrong’s open enmity, claiming that “the most malicious insinuations had been made against me at Washington.”55
The Contest for Lake Ontario
There was little action on Lake Ontario in the early months of the war, but by the end of 1812 the United States had enough ships to challenge the British for control. Thereafter, the balance of power tipped back and forth between the two nations depending on the progress of their building programs and the deployment of their ships. Both squadron commanders—Chauncey and Yeo—were cautious men, reluctant to risk an engagement without naval superiority. Hence even though there was some skirmishing, the results were inconclusive.56
The closest that the opposing squadrons came to a decisive engagement occurred on September 28, 1813, about 12 miles south of York. News had just reached both commanders of Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, and this was a rare occasion when the two were willing to risk a major engagement at the same time. In the ensuing clash, fire from Chauncey’s flagship, the General Pike (28 guns), destroyed the mizzen topmast and main topmast of Yeo’s flagship, H.M. Ship Wolfe (21 guns), leaving the British ship crippled. With this, Yeo’s squadron fled west toward Burlington Heights fifteen miles away with Chauncey in hot pursuit. For ninety minutes the two squadrons raced across the lake, driven by gale force winds, and occasionally exchanging fire. As Yeo neared a bar in Burlington Bay, Chauncey, fearing that the fierce winds might drive his ships ashore or expose him to land-based artillery fire, gave up his pursuit, thus ending what is commonly called the “Burlington Races.”57
The most significant loss on Lake Ontario in 1813 was caused not by a battle but by Mother Nature. The United States had a pair of converted merchantmen on the lake, the Hamilton (9 guns) and the Scourge (10 guns). Both were top heavy because of the naval guns they carried. According to Ned Myers, one of the Scourge’s crewmen, his ship was “unfit for her duty,” and it was often said that “she would prove our coffin.”58 For many of Myers’s shipmates, this proved to be correct, for both vessels sank after capsizing in a storm in the early morning hours of August 8. All but sixteen of the one hundred men aboard perished. Although he could not swim, Myers was one of the lucky survivors. (These vessels have since been found—perfectly preserved in 300 feet of water—near Hamilton, Ontario.)59
The Battle of York
Although Chauncey and Yeo engaged in no decisive naval action on Lake Ontario, each made a determined bid to destroy the other’s naval base. American strategy called for attacking the primary British base at Kingston first, but Dearborn and Chauncey, looking for an easier target, substituted York (present-day Toronto). A small community of about 700 people near the western end of Lake Ontario, York was the capital of Upper Canada and home to a small navy yard. Dearborn and Chauncey were convinced that the destruction of the British ships at York would give the United States command of Lake Ontario and thus greatly facilitate American operations elsewhere in the region.60
On April 25, 1813, Chauncey sailed from Sackets Harbor with 1,800 soldiers and 800 seamen and marines. Two days later the American force reached York, which was defended by around 1,000 British troops under the command of Major General Sir Roger Sheaffe and 50–100 Indians. Although Major General Henry Dearborn had overall command of the American land forces, characteristically he remained safely on Chauncey’s flagship during the ensuing engagement. Using army bateaux and ships’ boats, the Americans landed west of York. With Brigadier General Zebulon Pike in command of the landing force, Major John Forsyth’s riflemen spearheaded the attack. Aided by Chauncey’s supporting fire, the invaders drove off the Indians who contested the landing and then forced the British to retreat east to Kingston. The road to York was now open.61
The British suffered 200 killed and wounded and 275 captured in the Battle of “Little York.” The Americans sustained 310 casualties, mostly from the explosion of the garrison’s magazine, which Sheaffe had ordered detonated during his retreat.62 “The explosion was tremendous,” said an American who witnessed it. “The column was raked from front to rear.”63 The blast, which rattled windows at Fort Niagara more than thirty miles away, caused so many injuries that army doctors waded “in blood, cutting off arms, legs & trepanning [boring holes in] heads.” One of the surgeons claimed that he “cut & slashed for 48 hours, without food or sleep.”64 Among the casualties was General Pike. “A large Stone,” said a fellow officer, “Struck him in the forehead and Stamped him for the Grave.”65
American soldiers, already angry over the explosion, which they blamed on the British, found what they thought was a scalp hanging in one of the government buildings in York and used this as an excuse to loot the town. They were joined by locals whom they had freed from jail or who had come in from the countryside. “Every house they found deserted was completely sacked,” said a resident.66 The Americans carried off enemy provisions and military stores. They also destroyed a printing press (which prevented the provincial government from publishing its laws); took a government mace (which was returned in 1934); and carried off books from the subscription library (most of which were returned by an embarrassed Chauncey after the war). The government buildings in York were also put to the torch. Dearborn, who was now ashore, was slow to end the lawlessness because he was convinced that the navy yard and ship had been put to the torch after city officials had begun negotiations for surrender. He restored order only after local clergyman John Strachan (who later became the first Anglican bishop of Toronto) confronted him and shamed him into action.67
The Americans suffered additional losses when their ships, crowded with men, could not leave York for a week because of bad weather.68 Despite the heavy toll, the capture of York was an important victory. The United States seized one British vessel (although it proved unseaworthy), and the British destroyed another as well as a large quantity of naval stores. This helped the United States maintain parity on Lake Ontario and may have hampered British operations on Lake Erie. “The ordnance, ammunition and other stores for the service on Lake Erie,” claimed Governor George Prevost, “were either destroyed or fell into the enemy’s hands when York was taken.”69
York remained so vulnerable that in July 1813 Chauncey attacked again. A small detachment of soldiers and sailors landed unopposed on July 31. The Americans again carried off military and naval stores and burned the public buildings. They also destroyed a lumberyard and several boats. In their search for public property, they were assisted by disaffected British subjects. “The Number of Enemies & Spies,” complained a local merchant, “are beyond all conception.”70 The Americans also seized British soldiers who were confined in the jail or hospital, carrying off those who were fit and paroling those who were not.71
The Battle of Sackets Harbor
The British returned the favor in May 1813 by attacking the American naval base at Sackets Harbor. At dawn on May 29 Commodore Yeo’s squadron landed 900 troops a
nd 37 Indians. Although Sir George Prevost was aboard Yeo’s flagship, the landing force was under the command of Colonel Edward Baynes. The American base was defended by 1,450 men under the direction of Brigadier General Jacob Brown of the New York militia. The Americans made good use of the cover afforded by their defensive works and the surrounding forest. The British received fire from the Albany Volunteers on Horse Island and the militia on the shore but soon drove them off. U.S. Regulars under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Electus Backus held fast, pouring on a steady stream of fire. The British also took heavy fire from a huge 32-pounder in Fort Tompkins and from other American guns. “I do not exaggerate,” said one British soldier, “when I tell you that shot, both grape and musket, flew like hail.”72 The invaders got some supporting fire from two British gunboats, but contrary winds prevented Yeo from bringing the guns from his larger ships into action.
Convinced that the battle was lost, an American midshipman ordered the navy yard and a ship on the stocks burned. Although a hastily organized fire brigade doused the flames, General Brown was furious, calling this “as infamous a transaction as ever occurred among military men.”73 The smoke from the fire convinced the British that they had achieved their mission of destroying the naval yard, and this, coupled with the stout resistance they continued to face, induced Baynes (with Prevost’s approval) to call off the attack. In the Battle of Sackets Harbor, the British suffered 260 killed, wounded, and missing, while American casualties were 155 with another 140 captured on the lake while en route to Sackets Harbor. Backus died of wounds sustained in the battle, while Brown was rewarded with a commission as a brigadier general in the regular army.74
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