[214] Christie, Chap, v., pp. 126—130.
[215] It was this episode in Captain Barclay's proceedings which resulted in the loss of British supremacy on Lake Erie, the loss of his fleet, his own wounding, the death of most of his officers and sailors, General Proctor's compulsory evacuation of Detroit and the Michigan territory, his retreat into Canada, his defeat on the Thames at the Moravian village, involving the loss of many of his men, with upwards of 100 Indians, including famous Chief Tecumseh. We do not desire to dwell upon this dark spot in the life of Captain Barclay; but the whole mystery is explained in Mrs. Amelia Harris's Memoirs of her father and the early settlement of Long Point (and her authority cannot be questioned.) See Chapter XLI. of this History, pp. [254.]
[216] "General Wilkinson was called from the South to assume the command of the American forces in the North, in the room of General Dearborn, which now with General Hampton's division, amounted to about 18,000, to which General Harrison's division was ordered to be added. Such were the gigantic and formidable preparations for the capture of Montreal, where the American soldiers were promised, as an additional inducement, good winter quarters." (Thompson's History of the War of 1812, Chap. xxvi., p. 209.)
[217] "General Wilkinson had, at an early stage of the expedition, transmitted an order to General Hampton to join him at St. Regis; but that officer having learned the low state of General Wilkinson's supplies of provisions, and considering the state of the roads, conceived it the most prudent method to disobey the order, and not to place himself at too great a distance from his own magazines; he therefore availed himself of the nearest route to Montreal, the unsuccessful result of which manœuvre has just been detailed.
"The American army was again ordered to cross the line and take up their winter quarters in their own territory, after repeatedly suffering themselves to be defeated under the most mortifying and humiliating circumstances; with the blame of which the commander-in-chief (General Wilkinson) charged General Hampton, in consequence of his disobedience of orders, but with which the American Secretary of War more properly charged both. However, it had the effect of checking the military zeal which appeared to manifest itself in the American ranks at a distance from the theatre of hostile operations, and completely to extinguish the ardour of the American troops on the lines." (Thompson, Chap. xxvii., p. 215.)
[218] The foregoing account of the transactions in Lower Canada is chiefly extracted from Mr. Christie's History of the War of 1812, and mostly in his words. What follows is mostly taken from Thompson's War of 1812.
[219] The barbarous act of General McClure in burning Niagara is ascribed to directions from the American Secretary at War; but the many nefarious acts committed by McClure could hardly be owing to directions from Washington. Mr. Christie says that McClure "having, pursuant to the directions of the American Secretary at War, most inhumanly, on the 10th of December, set fire to the flourishing village of Newark, containing about 150 houses, which Were reduced to ashes, leaving the wretched and forlorn inhabitants, with upwards of 400 women and children, exposed to the accumulated horrors of famine and the inclemency of a Canadian winter."
The British, under the command of Colonel Murray, scarcely amounting to 500 men, including Indians and militia, immediately occupied Fort George. The barbarous policy of the American Government in destroying Newark, exasperated the army as well as the inhabitants on the frontier, of whose impatience for retaliation General Drummond promptly availed himself after the occupation of Fort George, by adopting the resolution of carrying the American Fort Niagara by surprise. (Chap. vii., p. 156.)
Mr. Thompson remarks on the conduct of McClure and his soldiers, even before the burning of the town of Newark: "The American army had no sooner taken up a position in front of Fort George, than the foraging parties, or rather marauders, commenced a systematic course of plunder upon the defenceless inhabitants within the vicinity of their camp, most of whom, at the time, consisted of women and children; even amongst the general officers acts of pillage were perpetrated, that, had such occurred with private soldiers in the British army, would have stamped a stigma on the character of the British, in the eyes of America, for which no course of conduct which they could ever after have pursued would have sufficiently atoned." (War of 1812, Chap. xxix., pp. 227, 228.)