The day after the engagement, the American flotilla proceeded down the Long Sault, and joined near Cornwall the division which had moved towards that place, where General Wilkinson confidently expected to hear of the arrival of General Hampton on the opposite shore, to whom he had written on the 6th, to that effect, not being then acquainted with his late defeat. Here, to his unspeakable mortification and surprise, he received a letter from General Hampton, informing him that the division under his command was falling back upon Lake Champlain.[217]
This information, with the countless difficulties momentarily crowding upon the American army, effectually blasted every prospect of further success. So circumstanced, the American commander immediately held a Council of War, in which it was unanimously resolved, "That the attack upon Montreal should be abandoned for the present season, and that the army near Cornwall should immediately cross to the American shore, in order to take up winter quarters," a resolution which was carried into effect the following day, by their proceeding for Salmon river, where their boats and batteaux were scuttled, and extensive barracks for the whole army were erected with extraordinary celerity, surrounded on all sides by abatis, so as to render a surprise unpracticable.
Every appearance of danger having subsided, the commander of the Canadian forces dismissed the sedentary militia, by a General Order of the 17th of November, with acknowledgments of the cheerful alacrity with which they had repaired to their posts, and the loyalty and zeal they had manifested at the prospect of encountering the enemy.
With these operations terminated the campaigns of 1813 in Lower Canada; but new triumphs still awaited the British arms in the Province of Upper Canada before the end of the year.[218]
PART XIII.
GENERAL DRUMMOND ARRIVES IN UPPER CANADA—COLONEL MURRAY SENT TO ARREST THE PREDATORY INCURSIONS OF THE BRUTAL GENERAL McCLURE UPON THE INHABITANTS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF FORT GEORGE—McCLURE'S BARBAROUS BURNING OF THE TOWN OF NEWARK (NIAGARA), EXPOSING 400 WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO THE INTENSE COLD OF THE 10TH OF DECEMBER—McCLURE'S FLIGHT TO FORT NIAGARA ON THE AMERICAN SIDE OF THE RIVER—COLONEL MURRAY, BY SURPRISING FORT NIAGARA, TAKES THE WHOLE GARRISON PRISONERS, AND SEIZES LARGE QUANTITIES OF MILITARY STORES—GENERAL RIALL RETALIATES IN THE SAME WAY, IN REGARD TO LEWISTON, BLACK ROCK, AND BUFFALO—GENERAL DRUMMOND ISSUES A PROCLAMATION DEPRECATING SUCH SAVAGE POLICY AS INITIALED BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.
Early in December, Major General De Rottenburgh was relieved in the command of Upper Canada by Lieutenant-General Drummond, who proceeded from Kingston to York, and from thence to the head of the lake, where the army again resumed an offensive position. The country along the St. Lawrence, being freed from the incursions of the enemy, Colonel Murray, of the 100th Regiment, was ordered to advance from Burlington Heights towards Fort George, with a view at that time to prevent predatory incursions of the enemy under General McClure (then in possession of that fort) on the defenceless inhabitants of the surrounding country. But General McClure, having heard of the disasters which had befallen the army destined for Montreal, and conscious that a like fate might probably await him and his army, with that dastardly cowardice peculiar to himself and a few of his compatriots and traitors who joined themselves to his train, and against the very spirit of the law of nations and of civilized warfare, immersed the flourishing town of Newark (Niagara) in one continued sheet of flame, and ignobly fled with his followers into his territory. The historian laments that it is not in his power to record one magnanimous act of that recreant General, to rescue his name from that gulf of infamy to which his nefarious conduct has forever doomed it.[219]
But retaliation was only delayed a week. On the evening of the 18th of December, preparations were made for taking Fort Niagara from the enemy, for which service Colonel Murray, of the 100th Regiment, was selected to take the command; and long before daylight next morning this gallant officer, at the head of the grenadier company of the Royal Scots, the grenadier and light companies of the 41st Regiment, and a detachment of his own corps, crossed the river about two miles above the fort, upon which they immediately advanced. On approaching the fortress, sentries, planted on the outer works, were surprised and taken, the countersign obtained, and in a few minutes the fort was carried at the point of the bayonet.
The loss on the part of the British in this affair was only six killed and five wounded: that of the enemy amounted to sixty-five killed and fourteen wounded (all with the bayonet), and the whole garrison was made prisoners, consisting of nearly 350. There were in the fort, at the time of its capture, twenty-seven pieces of ordnance of weighty calibre, 3,000 muskets with apparatus, besides large magazines of camp equipage and military clothing, which of course fell into the hands of the victors.
On the same day on which Fort Niagara was captured, the town of Lewiston, about eight miles above Fort Niagara, was taken possession of by a British force under Major-General Riall, without opposition; in which place the public magazines were well filled with provisions and other military stores.