Operations in Canada,
1812–1814.
302. Hull’s Surrender.—It was easy to perceive from the outset that the theater of the war on land would be much the same as in the French and Indian War—that is, it would stretch along our northern boundary from Maine to Lake Michigan. The main attacks by the Americans would be made through Lakes Ontario and Champlain. At first, bodies of troops were moved over the border from Detroit and Buffalo. General William Hull, the governor of Michigan Territory, who led the first advance with over two thousand troops, mainly volunteers from Ohio, was ignominiously repulsed by the Canadians and surrendered Detroit in a cowardly manner (August 16, 1812), for which he was afterward court-martialed and found guilty. Hull had issued a very boastful proclamation on his entry into Canada, and his surrender of an important fortress without firing a gun was almost unpardonable, in view of such high-flown pretensions. Altogether, the Canadians under Isaac Brock, the able governor of Upper Canada, with their allies, the Indians under Tecumseh, a famous warrior and the inveterate foe of the Americans, had outmaneuvered their opponents, and proved conclusively that the volunteers, rapidly gathering in Ohio and Kentucky, would have to be well led in order to secure any success. To get such leaders was not easy, but Madison finally selected the right man in General William Henry Harrison, the victor at Tippecanoe (§ [299]). It was late in the year, however, and the country was a very difficult one to penetrate. The impatient public had therefore to wait quietly for the success that was to retrieve the early losses, among which may be mentioned the capture of Fort Dearborn, on the site of the present city of Chicago.
303. Other Defeats.—Meanwhile General Van Rensselaer, of the New York militia, had gathered about six thousand eager men, and on October 13 was forced, by the general impatience for a victory, prematurely to cross the Niagara River from Lewiston to Queenstown. Hull’s surrender had left Brock free to manage the Canadian defense. The American regulars fought well, but the militia crossed only in part, and the result was another surrender. Yet the enemy also suffered heavily, for the brave Brock fell defending the heights of Queenstown, where his tall monument may now be seen. Van Rensselaer, for his part, resigned, and was succeeded by the still less capable General Alexander Smyth, who imitated Hull in bragging and in ineffectiveness, but who dismissed his volunteers to their homes instead of surrendering them. Equally futile were the attempts to reach Canada by way of Lake Champlain; and the year would have ended in complete gloom, so far as land operations were concerned, had not the Americans, in their turn, repulsed an invading force at Ogdensburg. In the latter fight Jacob Brown, a Quaker farmer of New York, showed that he was the coming general for the war in the northeast, if that war were to be carried on seriously and not with manifestoes and ill-directed sallies of raw troops. Another soldier of merit was also discovered in the person of Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott, a young Virginian who fought finely at Queenstown Heights.
EXPLOITS OF THE NAVY.
Captain Isaac Hull.
304. The War at Sea.—On the sea, events took a different turn from the first, although the government’s main intention was to use its few ships[[129]] in guarding the chief ports. On August 19, 1812, Captain Isaac Hull[[130]] of the frigate Constitution[[131]] (44 guns), which had previously been chased into Boston by a British squadron, met in the Gulf of St. Lawrence the enemy’s Guerrière (38 guns), which had made an unsavory reputation for itself by searching American vessels. The American ship was somewhat the stronger, but no one could have foreseen that she would overcome her adversary within half an hour. About two months later (October 18), in a very similar contest, the American sloop of war Wasp (18 guns), under Captain Jacob Jones, took the British brig Frolic (20 guns). In consequence of these unexpected victories Great Britain’s naval prestige was greatly shaken and American pride correspondingly stimulated. Analysis has shown that the results were mainly due to the better gunnery of the Americans. Equally fortunate for the younger nation were the fights between the frigate United States (44 guns), under Captain Decatur (§ [285, note 1]), and the British frigate Macedonian (38 guns); and between the Constitution, then under Captain Bainbridge, and the British Java. The former contest took place near the Madeiras, on October 25; the latter, off the coast of Brazil, on December 29, 1812. Congress immediately authorized the building of new ships, and while the British were able to sweep American commerce from the seas, the people consoled themselves with the thought of the superb victories of their ships and of the damage American privateers were doing English shipping on every ocean and sea—even within Dublin Bay itself. At last, however, reverses came, when, in 1813, the Chesapeake[[132]] was captured by the British Shannon, and when our ships were blockaded in our chief harbors. But the privateers continued their exploits until they raised British rates of insurance on trading vessels to a very high percentage.
The “Constitution.”