Drummond, after repairing the bridge, and receiving some reinforcements that brought his effective strength up to 3150 men, followed in Ripley’s footsteps, and appeared before Erie, which he invested on 3rd August. Ripley’s position was now very strong, with new earthworks and batteries extending from the fort to the edge of the lake. On the river side he was covered by the batteries at Black Rock: while from the lake, his defences were flanked by the fire of three gunboats. On the night of the 3rd, Drummond threw a small party of about 450 men across the river to capture the batteries at Black Rock. Failing to effect a surprise, they recrossed, with the loss of 25 men k.w.m. Two days later, the spirits of the besieged were raised by the arrival of General Gaines to supersede Ripley. On the night of the 12th, a daring exploit was performed by Captain Dobbs of the Royal Navy. With 75 seamen from Lake Ontario, he attacked and captured, in open boats transported overland, two of the three gunboats on Lake Erie: the third gunboat cut its cable, and escaped. On the 13th, Drummond’s batteries opened fire on the enemy’s works, and continued the cannonade on the following day, preparatory to a grand assault. At 2 A.M. on the 15th, the assault was delivered in three columns. The right column, headed by Sergeant Powell of the 19th Light Dragoons, “who was perfectly acquainted with the ground, volunteered to act as guide, and preceded the leading subdivision in the most intrepid style,” was to attack a work called Snake Hill at the border of the lake. The picquet of cavalry under Captain Eustace, 19th Light Dragoons was detailed to act with the right column. The rest of the squadron was drawn up in the rear of the most advanced battery, in readiness to receive prisoners, and conduct them to the rear. The centre and left columns were to assault the fort at different points. The scaling ladders with the right attack were too short; after prolonged efforts, and suffering great losses, the column was obliged to retire without gaining a footing. The left column also was beaten back, losing its leader and many men. The centre column, which was the weakest of the three, led by Lt. Colonel Drummond, the general’s nephew, alone effected a lodgment, and maintained its position till daylight, in spite of the most desperate efforts of the garrison. Lt. Colonel Drummond fell; but his men, reinforced from the left column, continued to resist all attacks made to dislodge them, till a tremendous explosion of stored ammunition took place, killing many, and forcing the remainder to retire. Almost every officer with the centre and left columns was killed or wounded. This disastrous repulse cost the British force a loss of 905 of all ranks, killed, wounded and missing; great part of the loss being ascribed to the explosion.

Drummond continued the blockade, and his troops now began to suffer greatly from sickness. On the 2nd September, General Brown, who had recovered from his wound received at Lundy’s Lane, resumed command of the U.S. forces at Erie, in place of Gaines who had been severely wounded. On the morning of the 7th, a United States’ picquet, consisting of an officer and 21 men, was surprised and cut off to a man, by a small party of infantry and a detachment of the 19th Light Dragoons under Captain Eustace, the whole commanded by Captain Powell, D.A.Q.M.G. The General Order of the same day says: “Sergeant Powell, 19th Light Dragoons, has been named to the Lieutenant General as having again distinguished himself on this occasion.” This brave soldier was subsequently taken prisoner, and is believed to have died before he could be exchanged. On the 17th September, favoured by a heavy fall of rain, Brown made a sortie in three strong divisions. The battery guards were surprised, and the whole line of entrenchments was for a time in the assailants’ hands; till Drummond, bringing up troops from the camp, drove out the enemy, and recovered possession of his batteries. The sortie cost the British troops 609 killed, wounded and prisoners, in addition to three of their few heavy guns destroyed, and other damage. This, together with continuous bad weather and increasing sickness among his troops, caused Drummond to give up the blockade, on the 21st, and withdraw his Head Quarters across the Chippewa on the 24th, which was done without molestation. A strong body of troops was maintained in advance of the Chippewa, occupying the line of the Black Creek. In his dispatch of 2nd October to Sir George Prevost, Drummond reports the capture by the enemy of a patrol of a corporal and six men of the 19th Light Dragoons. “The Dragoons must have been most culpably careless and confident, or the circumstance could not have happened.” About the 8th October, General Izard, with a large body of U.S. troops, arrived by land at Lewiston, from Sackett’s Harbour. Instead of crossing the river to Drummond’s rear, as he should have done, he continued along the river to Black Rock, and assumed the command at Erie. Izard’s force now amounted to over 8000 men, from whom some decisive action was to be expected. Izard advanced to Black Creek, and offered battle, which Drummond was not strong enough to accept. Beyond some skirmishing, Izard made no further use of his superiority of force, awaiting co-operation from the lake. But the U.S. squadron on Ontario was held fast in Sackett’s Harbour by Sir James Yeo. Izard remained inactive till 20th October, when he fell back, and carried his force across the river to Black Rock and Buffalo. On the 5th November, he blew up Fort Erie and evacuated the place. Drummond at once disposed the men in winter quarters. Major Lisle’s squadron was ordered to hold itself in readiness to proceed to Lower Canada, and one troop under Captain Eustace was sent to Ancaster.

Several times during the summer marauding parties from the United States, taking advantage of the undefended state of the Detroit frontier, had crossed the border, plundering and burning, and carrying off peaceable inhabitants. Drummond was unable to spare any force to meet this evil, and the province suffered cruelly. Towards the end of October, a mounted force of 1500 undisciplined men, under General McArthur, crossed the border by Lake St Clair, and marched to Moravian town on the Thames river, continuing eastwards in the direction of Burlington Heights, where only a few militia and some 300 of the 103rd, under Lt. Colonel Smelt, were stationed. Smelt at once moved forward to Grand River with about 170 men of the 103rd, 27 of the 19th Light Dragoons, 150 militia and some Indians. After making a demonstration of crossing, McArthur turned back and regained Detroit, on the 17th November, without having effected anything beyond the destruction of a great quantity of property. “Both in their advance and in their retreat their progress was marked by plunder and devastation.” Captain Eustace and his party marched to Dover.

A return, dated 8th November, shows that out of 7552 men on the frontier between Toronto and Long Point, 1327 were in hospital at that date. The total strength of the 19th Light Dragoons’ squadron was 123, of whom 34 were sick.

The operations for the year were at an end on this part of the frontier. Fort Niagara still remained in British hands, and the projected attack on Kingston had not been made. The only results of the strenuous efforts made by the United States’ government, at this point, had been to show the improvement of their troops, both in generalship and fighting power, since the beginning of the war. Beyond this, there was nothing to show for the offensive operations undertaken by the United States during the year.

The abdication of Napoleon, and the peace concluded in Paris at the end of May, set free for service in America the troops serving under Wellington in the south of France. A number of regiments were embarked at once for Quebec, so that, by the end of August, Sir George Prevost had upwards of 16,000 British troops in Lower Canada. With them came instructions to attack Plattsburgh, which, to observers at a distance, appeared to be the point from which the most formidable attack might be directed against Montreal. The strategy was at fault, as the experience of the preceding year had shown that, while Kingston continued to be held in force, no attack from Plattsburgh was likely to be successful. On the other hand, a British success at Plattsburgh could lead to no decisive result. The true point of attack was Sackett’s Harbour, on Lake Ontario. The occupation and retention of this point would have destroyed the U.S. naval power on the lake; Montreal and Kingston would have been secured from attack; and Sir Gordon Drummond would have been master of the situation on the Niagara frontier. The U.S. government gauged the situation more correctly, and denuded Plattsburgh of troops to reinforce Sackett’s Harbour. The event showed that Plattsburgh was only of secondary importance.

For the expedition against Plattsburgh Sir George Prevost formed three brigades on the frontier extending from the Richelieu river to the St Lawrence commanded by Major Generals Power, Robinson and Brisbane. The whole division was under command of Major General de Rottenburg, and amounted to 11,000 men. With it was the rest of the 19th Light Dragoons not engaged on the Niagara frontier.

On the 3rd of September, Sir George Prevost, advancing by Chateaugay from the St Lawrence, crossed the frontier to Chazy, and, on the 5th, reached, without opposition, a point eight miles from Plattsburgh. The U.S. troops about Plattsburgh, at the time, amounted to about 1500 men, of inferior quality, under General Macomb. This force was augmented by about 3000 militia from the surrounding neighbourhood during the operations, but neither in quality or numbers was it fit to stand before the troops under Prevost. On the 6th, the army advanced on Plattsburgh, driving in the U.S. pickets and outposts. So feeble was the resistance made that General Macomb mentions in his dispatch that the British troops pressed on in column, not even deigning to fire, except by their flankers and advanced patrols, on the militia that they brushed out of their way. In the advance, the 19th Light Dragoons had one man and two horses wounded, two men and six horses missing. Plattsburgh stands on the Saranac creek which runs at right angles into Lake Champlain. The high ground on the south side of the Saranac was occupied by Macomb with some hastily constructed redoubts. The houses on the north of the Saranac were occupied by British troops, on the 6th. On the lake lay the U.S. squadron, consisting of four vessels and ten gunboats. The British squadron, consisting of four vessels and twelve gunboats, was still at the north end of Lake Champlain, awaiting the completion of the flag-ship which had only been launched ten days previously, and whose crew had hardly joined her from Quebec. Sir George Prevost had only to advance on the 7th to make himself master of the feeble defences opposed to him, when he suddenly conceived the idea that he must await the co-operation of his lake squadron. For four days Prevost lay inactive, while he urged Captain Downie with his ill-prepared ships to join him, and engage the enemy’s squadron: the time was utilised by Macomb in strengthening his defences and collecting reinforcements. On the 11th, the British squadron appeared in sight, and engaged the U.S. ships, while Prevost put his troops tardily in motion. They forded the Saranac, and ascended the opposing heights, when, with victory in their grasp, they suddenly received the order to withdraw to their former positions. The British lake squadron, after a most deadly contest of over two hours, had been completely defeated, and Sir George Prevost at once threw up the sponge. The same night, leaving his sick and wounded, together with a quantity of stores, he commenced a retreat, which much resembled a flight, to the Canadian frontier. In the many wars in which the British army has fought, it would be hard to find a parallel instance in which British troops have been so mishandled. The co-operation of the fleet was unnecessary, as the enemy’s squadron could not have maintained its position with the whole of Plattsburgh in British hands. Nine thousand of Wellington’s veterans, who had defeated Napoleon’s choicest troops again and again, were made to retreat from an inferior force that could not have withstood them for an hour, with a loss of less than 40 killed since they had crossed the frontier. No wonder that the enemy first took the retreat for a ruse de guerre, and that a British General broke his sword, vowing he would never serve again. In the whole of the operations against Plattsburgh, the land forces under Prevost’s immediate command suffered a total loss of 37 killed, 150 wounded and 55 missing. In their anger at the fiasco, an immense number of men deserted during the retreat, causing a greater loss than a successful prosecution of the enterprise could possibly have entailed. The 19th Light Dragoons while covering the retirement, lost five men and horses taken prisoners.

Only brief mention need be made of land operations elsewhere, as they do not come within the scope of operations in which the 19th Light Dragoons were concerned. In the middle of August, a combined military and naval expedition fitted out from Bermuda, under Major General Ross and Vice Admiral Cockburn, landed at Benedict in the Potomac river, 50 miles from Washington, and marched on that town. At Bladensberg, on the 24th, Ross encountered a U.S. army of about 8000 men under General Winder, and gained a complete and easy victory, taking 10 guns.[65] Washington was occupied the same evening. On the following evening, after burning the most important public buildings, in retaliation for the outrages committed on the Canadian non-combatants, the force retired, and re-embarked on the 29th, without molestation.

At daylight on the 12th September, the same force landed 13 miles from Baltimore, and advanced on that place. On first coming in touch with the enemy, Ross was killed by a chance shot. Colonel Brook assumed the command, and at about five miles from Baltimore a United States’ force of about 7000 men was encountered and overthrown in less than half an hour. Two field pieces and many prisoners were captured. Preparations were then made for a combined attack on the city, when it was discovered that the harbour was so effectually closed by sunken vessels, that naval co-operation was impossible. It being considered that, under these circumstances, the loss that must be incurred in taking the place by storm would be out of proportion to any benefit to be gained, the troops were withdrawn, and re-embarked without the slightest molestation, on the 15th. The troopships, after hovering on the coast, rather aimlessly for another month, then set sail for Jamaica, where an expedition was preparing against New Orleans.