CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA, ETC.
On the 7th of January the president of congress presented copies of letters which had passed between Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Monroe, in which the former proposed to appoint commissioners to treat about terms of peace, either at London or Gottenburg. The appointed place of meeting was Gottenburg; but the negociations were removed to Ghent, and they did not commence till the following August. In the meantime war continued. Early in February the American general, Wilkinson, moved his head-quarters to Bridlington and Platsburg; and he subsequently attacked a post commanded by Major Hancock, but was repulsed with considerable loss. In the month of May Sir James Yeo and General Drummond reduced the fort of Oswego, on the Lake Ontario, an achievement which was chiefly serviceable by retarding the equipment of the enemy’s armament on that water. Soon after this, however, the Americans became the assailants. General Brown, crossing the Niagara, compelled the garrison of Fort Erie to surrender prisoners of war; and then attacked the British lines at Chippawa, and compelled General Riall to retreat on Fort George. This officer, however, being re-enforced by some troops under General Drummond, returned, and compelled the enemy to take refuge under the cannon of Fort Erie. About this time the British government, on the dethronement of Napoleon, having resolved to prosecute the contest with increased vigour, a numerous fleet arrived in the St. Lawrence with 14,000 of the brave troops that had fought in the Peninsula. Sir George Prévost commanded them, and in the month of September he entered the American territory, and advanced against Platsburg, on Lake Champlain, in conjunction with a flotilla under Captain Dordnie of the navy. This expedition, however, resulted disastrously, and Sir George Prevost was recalled to answer charges preferred against him by Sir James Yeo; but he did not live to await his trial. Success, however, attended the British arms in other quarters. During this year Admiral Cochrane destroyed the Baltimore flotilla in the Patuxent; General Ross captured and set fire to the city of Washington, after having encountered and defeated an army of 9,000 Americans; General Pilkington reduced Moose Island, and two others, in the bay of Passamaquoddy; and the English frigate “Phobe” captured the United States’ frigate “Essex,” off Valparaiso, on the western coast of South America. On the other hand, a British sloop of war was captured by the American sloop “Wasp;” and an expedition, under Admiral Cochrane and Sir E. Pakenham, against New Orleans failed, after a severe rencontre with the American troops who defended the city. The final event of the war was the capture of Fort Bowyer, by the British, in the Gulf of Mexico. But before this event took place, a treaty of peace and amity had been signed at Ghent, which was afterwards ratified by both governments.
GEORGE III. 1814-1818