Captain James Lawrence.
305. Victories of Perry and Harrison.—Meanwhile the war was not popular in Great Britain or in New England. The South and West still favored it, however, and Congress helped Madison by allowing him to use twenty new regiments of regulars in place of volunteers. A new Secretary of War, General Armstrong, late minister to France, took the place of Eustis, who was unfitted to cope with the difficulties of the position. But the year was to witness few signal successes beyond an important victory on Lake Erie that led to the retaking of Detroit. Captain Oliver H. Perry[[133]] had a flotilla constructed at Presque Isle (now Erie), and on September 10 met and defeated the British flotilla under Captain Barclay. The British had more guns, but the Americans, after Perry had been obliged to abandon his flagship, gained a complete victory through their courage and skill. Perry, who was coöperating with Harrison, wrote the latter on the back of an old letter, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Harrison’s army, helped by the American ships, then passed to Detroit and afterward landed in Canada, where, at the battle of the Thames River, the British, under Colonel Proctor and their Indian allies, were completely routed (October 5). Tecumseh fell in this fight, and a portion of Upper Canada passed under American control, Michigan having been, of course, regained.[[134]]
REVERSES AND SUCCESSES.
Captain Oliver H. Perry.
306. American Failures.—A great invasion of Canada and the seizure of Montreal had been planned for 1813, but it was partly abandoned, General Dearborn seizing only a few places, including York (now Toronto), which was unnecessarily burned. Brown, Scott, and others showed that American soldiers could be brave, but the campaign was on the whole a failure. General Wilkinson then succeeded Dearborn, but, like the latter, was too old for the work, and was besides at loggerheads with Secretary Armstrong and with his second in command, General Wade Hampton of South Carolina. An attack on Montreal or else on Kingston was planned, but Armstrong mixed matters up by assuming the command. Hampton failed to coöperate with Wilkinson, who had had a hard time descending the St. Lawrence, and the latter general was obliged to put his troops into winter quarters with nothing accomplished. Meanwhile the force on the weakened Niagara frontier had recrossed the river after burning the town of Newark. The British retaliated in kind and with their Indian allies did much damage on the American side of the river.
307. Jackson and the Indians.—While these events had been taking place in the North, the Southwest had not been quiet. British and Spanish emissaries were stirring up the Southern Indians to attack the Americans. The Creeks had also been excited by Tecumseh, who used a comet and an earthquake to work upon their superstitious fears. The savages massacred the white settlers at Fort Mims, Alabama, on August 30, 1813, slaying or roasting to death four hundred persons. Retaliation came swiftly. The Tennesseean volunteers under General Andrew Jackson invaded the Creek country, and with the help of troops from Mississippi completely defeated the Indians at the battle of the Horseshoe, or Tohopeka (March 27, 1814).
Operations in the East, 1814