The troops under General Ross were landed at Benedict, on the Pawtuxet river, forty-seven miles from Washington. On the 21st they moved towards Nottingham, and on the following day they reached Marlborough. A flotilla of launches and barges, commanded by Admiral Cockburn, ascended the river at the same time, keeping on the right flank of the army. There are two rivers by which Washington may be approached—the Potomac, which discharges itself into the upper extremity of the bay of Chesapeake, and the Pawtuxet. The object which the British military and naval commanders had in view when the Pawtuxet was decided on for the route by which a dash was to be made on the capital city of the American republic, was greater facility of access, and the destruction of Commodore Barney's powerful flotilla of gun-boats, which had taken refuge in its creeks. This flotilla, snugly moored in a situation only twelve miles from Washington, was fallen in with by Admiral Cockburn, on the 23rd. The Americans then seeing that it must be captured set fire to it and fled. Out of sixteen fine gun-boats, fifteen were totally consumed, but one gun-boat missed destruction and it, with thirteen merchant schooners, was made a prize of. The troops now marched rapidly forward. There were about 3,500 men, with 200 sailors to drag the guns, to oppose General Winder, who, with 16,600 men, had, on the faith of a hint received from Ghent, taken measures to protect the capital. When the British approached, however, General Winder had only 6,500 infantry, 300 cavalry, and 600 sailors to work the guns, which were twenty-six in number, while the British had only two. He took up a position at Bladensburg, six miles from Washington, so as to command the only bridge over the little Potomac, by which it could be crossed, and the highway to Washington being directly through his centre. He directed all his artillery upon the bridge. But the men now opposed to the Americans knew well how to carry bridges. General Ross, having formed his troops into two columns, the one under Colonel Thornton, and the other under Colonel Brooke, ordered the bridge to be crossed. Hardly was the order given, when in spite of artillery and musketry, Thornton's column had dashed across, carried a fortified house at the opposite side, and being quickly followed by the other division, had spread out sharpshooters on either flank. The militia of the United States soon got into confusion, and soon after fled. Indeed Commodore Barney and his sailors made the most gallant resistance, but he was soon overpowered, wounded, and with a great part of the seamen under him fell into the hands of the British. Ten guns were taken, the whole army was totally routed; and the enemy were fleeing past Washington, to the heights of Georgetown, horse and foot, as fast as fear could carry them. The day was oppressively hot, and the British army uninfluenced by fear were not able to continue their advance until the cool of the evening. They had not "suffered" at all. The entire loss was only 61 killed and 185 wounded. By eight at night they were within a mile of Washington, and the main body halted. With only seven hundred men General Ross and Admiral Cockburn were in the capital of a republic numbering eight millions of inhabitants, and proud of having in arms the inconsiderable number of eight hundred thousand men, to do with it as Commodore Chantey and General Dearborn had done to York, the capital of a territory containing ninety-five thousand inhabitants, man, woman, and child! half an hour afterwards, or pay a ransom. The ransom was refused and the torch was applied to arsenals, store-houses, senate house, house of representatives, dockyard, treasury, war office, president's palace, rope walk, and the great bridge across the Potomac. In the arsenal 20,000 stand of arms were consumed. A frigate and a sloop of war, afloat, were burnt, 206 cannon and 100,000 rounds of ball cartridge were taken and destroyed, and General Ross and Admiral Cockburn went back at their leisure to Benedict. In connection with this most extraordinarily successful enterprise reflecting the highest credit on General Ross, there had been some outcry about extending the ravages of war to pacific public buildings. Indeed the barbarity of destroying the legislative buildings, the White House and the public libraries of Washington has been harped upon most sentimentally and injudiciously. The destruction of some books, scraped together by a new country and, therefore, of no very great intrinsic value, is looked upon by the literati of this and of a past age, as a crime, and one of greater magnitude than the destruction of a village in Canada, on the 20th of December, with the thermometer at zero, and the snow two feet in depth upon the ground, women and children even being left to gather food and gather warmth where best they might. It is not considered that a palace or even a church or parliament building may be converted into a barrack or that, in some cases, even the destruction of a city may be necessary. The Americans had burglariously entered upon a war with the view of stealing Canada from its lawful owner, and being caught and stayed in the act, were fined, but refusing to pay, were distressed by the loss of public goods. The Americans, who were the sufferers, very naturally represented an act, which had so humiliated them, as barbarous, but how any other person could object to such a proceeding on the score that it was only worthy of a Goth, is difficult of conjecture. It is certainly a pity that fine edifices should be destroyed, and it is no less a pity that thousands of young men should be destroyed or mutilated, and that hundreds of thousands of their relatives should mourn because of war; but so long as war is possible, and possible it ever will be, until the amalgamation of the different species of the different nations, of the different tribes, and of the different tongues who inhabit the earth takes place, at the millennium; soon after which this great globe itself is to be dissolved with fervent heat, and all its magnificent palaces, gorgeous temples, and stupendous towers are to pass away for ever, will there be a waste and destruction of life and property at which extreme civilisation shudders. Educated men will doubtless mourn the loss of fine libraries and of grand cathedrals. English taste doubtless regrets that churches, the remains of which are yet so striking, should have been destroyed by indiscriminating fanaticism, but the man of sense will recollect the idolatry that has passed away with them, as with the Parthenon, and he will weigh the gain to a people with the loss sustained by merely men of taste. And, beyond question, men of peace can paint the horrors of war vividly, and deny its necessity, but the man of ordinary understanding will not scruple to say that as war in the elements is sometimes necessary for a healthy atmosphere, so war among men is needful for the preservation of even a shadow of liberty to the individual, and that injury to public buildings, to trade and commerce, must result from it, for a time.
Immediately after the capture of Washington, Captain Gordon, in the frigate Seahorse, accompanied by the brig Euryalus, and several bomb-vessels, entered the Potomac. Without much difficulty he overcame the intricacies of the passage leading by that river to the metropolis, and on the evening of the 27th, the expedition arrived abreast of Fort Washington. The Fort which had been constructed so as to command the river was immediately bombarded, and the powder magazine having exploded, the place was abandoned, and with all its guns, taken possession of by the British. Proceeding next to Alexandria, the bomb-vessels assumed a position which effectually commanded the shipping in the port, and the enemy were compelled to capitulate, when two and twenty vessels, including several armed schooners, fell into the hands of the British, and were brought away in triumph. There was some difficulty, however, in bringing off the prizes. To cut off the retreat of the British squadron, several batteries had been erected by the Americans, and these, now manned by the crews of the Baltimore flotilla, opened fire upon Captain Gordon and his prizes. The expeditionary and the captured vessels were, nevertheless, so skilfully navigated, and the fire from the bomb-vessels was so well directed that not a single ship took the ground, and the Americans were driven from their guns, the whole squadron being thus permitted to emerge from the Potomac, with its prizes, in safety.
An expedition was next fitted out against Baltimore, and the fleet moved in that direction, reaching the mouth of the Patapsco on the 11th September. The troops were landed on the day following the arrival of the fleet, and, while the ships moved up the river, marched upon Baltimore. For the first six miles no opposition was offered, but as Baltimore was approached a detachment of light troops were noticed occupying a thick wood through which the road passed. Impelled by the daring for which he was distinguished, General Ross immediately advanced with the skirmishers to the front, and it was not long before the general received a wound, which so soon proved fatal that he had barely time to recommend his wife and family to the protection of his king and country before he breathed his last. The command, on the death of this energetic officer, devolved upon Colonel Brooke. The British light troops continued to come up and the enemy fell back, still skirmishing from behind the trees, to a fortified position stretching across a narrow neck of land, which separated the Patapsco and the Back Rivers. Here, six thousand infantry, four hundred horse, and six guns were drawn up in line, across the road, with either flank placed in a thick wood, and a strong wooden paling covering their front. The British, however, immediately attacked and with such vigour that in less than fifteen minutes the enemy were routed, and fled in every direction, leaving six hundred killed and wounded on the field of battle, besides three hundred prisoners, and two guns, in the hands of the British. On the following morning, the British were within a mile and a half of Baltimore. There he found fifteen thousand Americans, with a large train of artillery, manned by the crews of the frigates lying at Baltimore, strongly posted on a series of fortified heights which encircle the town. To charge a force of such magnitude with three thousand men would have been extremely hazardous, and Colonel Brooke determined upon a night attack; but, as the night fell, and Brooke was arranging his men for the contemplated assault, he received a letter from Admiral Cockburn, informing him that the enemy, by sinking twenty vessels in the river, (a mode of defence since adopted by Russia,) had prevented all further access to the ships, and rendered naval co-operation impossible. Under such circumstances, Brooke withdrew, without molestation, to his ships.
To the British, the operations on the seaboard, so far, had been as eminently successful as the operations in Upper Canada had been. In the northwest, there was one post which did not fall, and the fall of which was looked upon with indifference by the Americans when Michigan was recovered, after the defeat of the British fleet on Lake Erie. Contrary to the expectation of the enemy, that post, which was at Michillimackinac, had been reinforced early in the spring. Colonel McDonell, with a detachment of troops, arrived there on the 18th of May, with provisions and stores for the relief of the garrison. He did not remain idle when his chief errand was accomplished. In July he sent off Colonel McKay, of the Indian Department, with 650 men, Michigan Fencibles, Canadian Volunteers, Officers of the Indian Department, and Indians, to reduce Prairie-du-Chien, on the Mississippi. On the 17th of July, McKay arrived there. The enemy were in possession of a small fort, and two block-houses, armed with six guns, while in front of the fort, in the middle of the river, there was a gun-boat of considerable size, in which there were no less than fourteen pieces of ordnance. McKay was superlatively polite. He sent a message to the commander of the fort, recommending an immediate surrender. But, as McKay had only one gun, the American promptly refused, and was not a little ironical in his refusal. McKay, highlander as he was, could stand anything but irony, and he opened fire with his solitary gun upon the gunboat, by way of returning the compliment. With this only iron in the fire, he soon gave such proof of metal that the gun-boat cut her cable and ran down stream. McKay now threw up a mud battery, and on the evening of the 19th, he was prepared with his one gun to bombard the fort. The enemy seeing the earthworks doubtless imagined that McKay's park of artillery was more considerable than it was, and without waiting for a single round he hoisted a white flag in token of submission, when McKay took possession of the fort. It contained only three officers and seventy-one men, but the exploit was a gallant one, nevertheless, and of essential service in securing British influence over the Indian tribes.
The Americans on being informed that Michillimackinac had been reinforced, and perhaps anticipating that further mischief to them might ensue, sent Colonel Croghan without loss of time to capture it. Croghan dispatched Major Holmes upon Ste. Marie to plunder the North West Company of their stores. The miscreant was only too successful. Not content with plunder only, he set fire to the buildings and reduced them to ashes. He gave further proof of the possession of a cruel and barbarous disposition, by enjoying the unavailing efforts of a poor horse to extricate itself from a burning building to which it had been inhumanly attached, to be burnt to death, after having been employed the greater part of the day in carrying off the plunder from the stores. This wretch, accompanied by nine hundred men, of a stamp similar to himself, effected a landing near Michillimackinac, on the 4th of August. But the reception given to him was of such a nature that he speedily re-embarked, leaving seventeen dead men, besides his own inanimate remains, to be buried by the people in the fort. Michillimackinac was not yet, however, quite safe. There were on the lake two American armed vessels, the Tigress and Scorpion, each carrying a long twenty-four pounder gun, on a pivot, and manned by thirty-two men, which intercepted the supplies intended for the garrison. It was most necessary to destroy or get hold of them, and this not unimportant business was entrusted to Lieutenant Worsley, of the Royal Navy, and Lieutenant Bulger, of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. These two gallant officers proceeded to the despatch of business with praiseworthy alacrity. On the evening of the 3rd of September, one vessel was boarded and captured, and on the morning of the 5th the other craft was captured. Michillimackinac was now sufficiently safe.
The war, which was no longer, on the part of the British, a merely defensive one, was now being offensively prosecuted with vigour in several quarters, almost simultaneously. Washington had been taken and Baltimore assailed on one side; and Fort Erie, containing the American army of the West, was closely invested. It was now determined to prosecute hostilities from Nova Scotia, which then included New Brunswick, upon the northeastern States of the American Union. With this view, Sir John Sherbrooke sent Colonel Pilkington in the Ramilies, commanded by Sir Thomas Hardy, to take possession of Moose Island, the chief town of which is Eastport, commanded by a strongly situated fort, on an overhanging hill, called Fort Sullivan. The fort was, however, only occupied by Major Putnam, six other officers, and eighty men, and was taken possession of on the 11th of July, without resistance, the garrison being made prisoners of war. As soon as the news of this successful enterprise reached the ears of Sherbrooke, he determined upon personally undertaking another expedition. On the 26th of August, he, accordingly, embarked, at Halifax, the whole of the troops at his disposal, in ten transports, and in company with the squadron, commanded by Admiral Griffiths, sailed for the river Penobscot, on the 1st of September, when the fort at Castine, commanding the entrance to the river, was evacuated and blown up. The American frigate John Adams, was in the river and, on the approach of the fleet, she was run up the river as high as Hampden. The better to protect her from capture her guns were taken out and, at some distance below Hampden, batteries or earthworks were erected, in which all the guns of the frigate were placed. The capture or destruction of the John Adams was, however, determined upon, and Captain Barrie, of the Dragon, with a party of seamen, accompanied by Colonel John, at the head of six hundred of the 60th regiment, was sent off to effect it. For a short time the batteries resisted, but the attack being well managed the Americans gave way, and, having set fire to the frigate, fled in all directions. The expedition pushed on to Bangor, which surrendered without resistance; and from thence they went to Machias, which surrendered by capitulation, the whole militia of the county of Washington being put on their parole not to serve again during the war. The whole country between the Penobscot and the frontier of that part of Nova Scotia, which is now New Brunswick, was then formally taken possession of, and a provisional government established, to rule it while the war continued.
About this time, the army in Canada was re-inforced by the arrival of several generals and officers who had acquired distinction in Spain, and by the successive arrival of frigates from the army which had been so successfully commanded by the illustrious Wellington, and with which he had invaded France. In August, Sir George Prevost had been re-inforced with sixteen thousand men from the Garonne. There were, consequently, great anticipations. Even General Sir George Prevost dreamed of doing something worthy of immortality. And such expectations were natural. With a mere handful of troops, General Drummond had proved how much an intelligent and decided commander can do, and Sir George Prevost, with some of the best troops in the world, was about to prove, to all the nations in it, how good blood may be spilled, and material and treasure wasted by a commander inadequate to the task either of leading men to victory or of securing their retreat until victory be afterwards obtained. Sir George Prevost determined upon the invasion of the State of New York, and as if naval co-operation was absolutely necessary to transport his troops to Plattsburgh, Sir George Prevost urged upon Commodore Sir James Yeo to equip the Lake Champlain fleet with the greatest expedition. The commodore replied that the squadron was completely equipped and had more than ninety men over the number required to man it. And under the supposition that Captain Fischer, who had prepared the flotilla for active service, had not acted with promptitude in giving the Commander-in-Chief such information as he desired, Sir James sent Captain Downie to supersede him. Sir George, who seemed to have some misgivings about this fleet, and was still most anxious to bring it into active service, finding Sir James Yeo, who knew His Excellency well, quite impracticable, applied to Admiral Otway, who, with the Ajax and Warspite, was then in the port of Quebec, for a re-inforcement of sailors from these vessels for the Lake Champlain flotilla. Admiral Otway did as he was requested to do. A large re-inforcement of sailors were immediately sent off to Lake Champlain, and Sir George having sent Major-General Sir James Kempt to Upper Canada, to make an attack upon Sackett's Harbour, if practicable, concentrated his own army, under the immediate command of General DeRottenburg, between Laprairie and Chambly. He then moved forward, towards the United States frontier, with about 11,000 men to oppose 1,500 American regulars and as many militia, under General Macomb, whose force had been weakened by 4,000 men, sent off under General Izzard, from Sackett's Harbour, to re-inforce the troops at Fort Erie. Prevost, who had with him Generals Power, Robinson, and Brisbane, in command of divisions, men inured to fighting, and well accustomed to command, met with so inconsiderable an opposition from the Americans, that General Macomb admits that the invaders "did not deign to fire upon them." His powerful army was before Plattsburgh, only defended by three redoubts and two block-houses; he had been permitted, for three days, to bring up his heavy artillery; he had a force with him ten times greater than that which, under Colonel Murray, took possession of it, in 1813; and yet Sir George Prevost hesitated to attack Plattsburgh, until he could obtain the co-operation of Commodore Downie, commanding the Confiance, of 36 guns, the Linnet, of 18 guns, the Chubb, of 10 guns, the Finch, of 10 guns, and 12 gun-boats, containing 16 guns! because the enemy had a squadron consisting of the ship Saratoga, of 26 guns, the brig Eagle, of 20 guns, the schooner Ticonderoga, of 17 guns, and the cutter Preble, of 7 guns. The British Commodore Downie was not quite ready for sea. His largest vessel, the Confiance, had been recently launched, and was not finished. He could not perceive either the necessity for such excessive haste. He would have taken time and gone coolly into action, but he had received a letter from the Commander of the Forces which made the blood tingle in his cheeks. Sir George Prevost had been in readiness for Commodore Downie's expected arrival all morning, and he hoped that the wind only had delayed the approach of the squadron. The anchors of the Confiance were immediately raised, and with the carpenters still on board, Commodore Downie made all sail. Nay, he seemed to have forgotten that he had a fleet of brigs and boats to manage, so terribly was he excited by Sir George's unfortunate expression in connection with the wind. The Confiance announced her approach on rounding Cumberland Head, by discharging all her guns one after the other. The other vessels were hardly visible in her wake, and still Captain Downie bore down upon the enemy's line, to within two cable's length, without firing a shot, when the Confiance came to anchor, and opened fire upon the enemy. General Prevost had promised to attack the fort as soon as the fleet appeared, but instead of doing so, Sir George very deliberately ordered the army to cook their breakfasts. The troops cooked away while Downie fought desperately with a fleet which, as a whole, was superior in strength to his, and which was rendered eminently superior by the shameful defection of the gun-boats manned by Canadian militia and soldiers of the 39th regiment. Downie kept up a terrific fire, with only his own frigate, a brig and sloop, wholly surrounded as he was, by the American fleet. The brig Finch had taken the ground out of range, and the whole of the gun-boats, except three and one cutter, had deserted him. He was, nevertheless, on the very point of breaking the enemy's line, when the wind failed. As before stated, he cast anchor, and with his first broadside had laid half the crew of the Saratoga low. The Chubb was soon, however, crippled and became unmanageable. She drifted within the enemy's lines and was compelled to surrender. The whole fire of the enemy was now concentrated upon the Confiance, and still the latter fired broadside after broadside with much precision and so rapidly that every gun on board of the Saratoga on one side was disabled and silenced, although she lay at such a distance that she could not be taken possession of. But Captain Downie had fallen. The Confiance was now commanded by Lieutenant Robertson, who was entirely surrounded and raked by the brigs and gun-boats of the enemy, while the Saratoga, out of range, had cut her cable and wound round so as to bring a new broadside, as it were, to bear upon the Confiance. It was in vain that the Confiance attempted to do as the Saratoga had done. Three officers and thirty-eight of her men had been killed, and one officer and thirty-nine men had been wounded. Lieutenant Robertson was at last compelled to strike his colours, and Captain Pring, of the Linnet, was reluctantly obliged to follow the example. In all one hundred and twenty men had fallen, and the cheering of the enemy informed the British army that the fleet for the co-operation of which Sir George Prevost had so unnecessarily waited, was annihilated. "You owe it, Sir, to the shameful conduct of your gun-boats and cutters, said the magnanimous American Commodore, McDonough, to Lieutenant Robertson, when that officer was in the act of presenting his sword to him, that you arc performing this office to me; for, had they done their duty, you must have perceived from the situation of the Saratoga that I could hold out no longer; and, indeed, nothing induced me to keep up her colours but my seeing, from the united fire of all the rest of my squadron on the Confiance, and her unsupported situation, that she must ultimately surrender." Sir George Prevost had by this time swallowed his breakfast. He had directed the guns of the batteries to open on the American squadron, but ineffectually, as they were too far off. Orders were at length given to attack the fort. General Robinson advanced with the view of fording the Saranac, and attacking the works in front, and General Brisbane had made a circuit for the purpose of attacking the enemy in the rear. Robinson's troops, led astray by the guides, were delayed, and had but reached the point of attack when the shouts from the American works intimated the surrender of the fleet. To have carried the fort would have been a work of easy accomplishment, but the signal for retreat was given; Robinson was ordered to return with his column; and Prevost soon afterwards commenced a retrograde movement, which admits barely of excuse and could not be justified. So indignant indeed was the gallant General Robinson that it is asserted he broke his sword, declaring that he could never serve again. The army indeed went leisurely away in mournful submission to the orders of a superior on whom they could but look with feelings akin to shame. Four hundred men, ashamed to be known at home, in connection with a retreat so unlooked for and so degrading, deserted to the enemy. And it is little to be wondered at, that murmurs in connection with the name of Prevost and Plattsburgh, were long, loud, and deep. Sir George felt the weight of public opinion and was crushed under it. He resigned the government of Canada and demanded a Court Martial, but he had a judge within himself, from whom he could not escape, and whose judgment weighed upon "a mind diseased," in the broad noonday and at the midnight hour, with such overpowering weight that the nervous system became relaxed, and death at last relieved a man, who, only that he wanted decision of purpose, was amiable, kind, well intentioned, and honest, of a load of grief, before even the sentence of a Court Martial could intervene to ameliorate his sorrows. It is extremely to be regretted indeed that so excellent a Civil Governor should have been so indifferent a military commander. But, entirely different qualifications are required in the civilian and in the soldier. It is indeed on record that the Great Duke, who was the idol of the British people as a soldier, was the reverse of being popular as a statesman. He was ever clear-headed and sensible; but his will would never bend to that of the many. Desirous of human applause, he could not court it, though he was yet vain of his celebrity, and studied to be celebrated, knowing the value that attaches to position and to fame. Sir George Prevost was a man of exactly an opposite disposition to that of the Great Duke. To be great, he flattered little prejudices and weak conceits. He never forced any measure or any opinion down another person's throat. He was content to retain his own opinion and ever doubted its correctness. Personally, he was brave, but he was ever apprehensive.
In defence of the retreat of Sir George Prevost, the opinion expressed by Lord Wellington to Lord Bathurst, in 1813, is quoted. Wellington advised the pursuance of a defensive policy, knowing that there were not then men sufficient in Canada for offensive warfare, and because by pursuing a defensive system, the difficulties and risk of offensive operations would be thrown upon the enemy, who would most probably be foiled. This opinion was verified to the letter. On the other hand, the authority of Wellington, who says to Sir George Murray, that after the destruction of the fleet on Lake Champlain, Prevost must have returned to Kingston, sooner or later, is valueless, inasmuch as His Grace in naming Kingston, had evidently mistaken the locality of the disaster, and must have fancied that Plattsburgh was Sackett's Harbour. He says that a naval superiority on the Canadian lakes is a sine qua non in war on the frontier of Canada, even should it be defensive. But Lake Champlain is not one of the Canadian lakes, and, therefore, this justification of a military mistake is somewhat far-fetched. Sir George Prevost failed because he feared to meet the fate of Burgoyne, and he incurred deep and lasting censure because, when it was in his power, he did nothing to retrieve it. Historic truth, says the historian of Europe, compels the expression of an opinion that though proceeding from a laudable motive—the desire of preventing a needless effusion of human blood—the measures of Sir George Prevost were ill-judged and calamitous.
Sir James Yeo accused Sir George Prevost of having unduly hurried the squadron on the lake into action, at a time when the Confiance was unprepared for it; and when the combat did begin, of having neglected to storm the batteries, as had been agreed on, so as to have occasioned the destruction of the flotilla and caused the failure of the expedition.
The result of the Plattsburgh expedition was exhilarating to the Americans. It seemed to be compensation for the misfortunes and disasters of Hull, of Hampton, and of Wilkinson. In the interior of Fort Erie even a kind of contempt was entertained for the British. In their joy at the discomfiture of Downie and the catastrophe of Prevost, they began to look with contempt even upon General Drummond, who had cooped them up where they were. Hardly had the news reached these unfortunate besieged people than a sortie was determined upon, and such is the effect of good fortune that it infuses new spirit, and generally insures further success. In the onset the Americans gained some advantages. During a thick mist and heavy rain, they succeeded in turning the right of the British picquets, and made themselves masters of the batteries, doing great damage to the British works. But no sooner was the alarm given than re-inforcements were obtained, and the besiegers drove the besieged back again into their works, with great slaughter. The loss on each side was about equal. The Americans lost 509 men in killed, wounded, and missing, including 11 officers killed and 23 wounded, while the British loss was 3 officers and 112 men killed, 17 officers and 161 men wounded, and 13 officers and 303 men missing. On the 21st of September, General Drummond, finding the low situation in which his troops were engaged very unhealthy, by reason of continued rain, shifted his quarters to the neighborhood of Chippewa, after in vain endeavoring to provoke the American General to battle. General Izzard had, meanwhile, arrived from Sackett's Harbour with 4,000 troops from Plattsburgh, but General Brown, having heard that Sir James Yeo had completed a new ship, the St. Lawrence, of 100 guns, and had sailed from Kingston for the head of the lake, with a re-inforcement of troops and supplies for the army, Commodore Chauncey having previously retired to Sackett's Harbour, instead of prosecuting the advantages which the addition of 4,000 men promised, blew up Fort Erie and withdrew with his whole troops into American territory, realizing the prediction of General Izzard, that his expedition would terminate in disappointment and disgrace.