Isaac Chauncey.
From an engraving by Edwin of the portrait by Wood.
But while Chauncey was at the head of the lake, the British at Kingston learned that Sackett’s Harbor had been left with only a small force to defend it, and, to quote a British account of what they did in consequence, “Sir George Prevost now allowed himself to be persuaded to embark seven hundred and fifty troops on board the squadron for the purpose of making an attack on Sackett’s Harbor; but to mar the successful issue of the plan, he resolved to head the troops himself.”
On May 27th, the day when the Americans were taking Fort George at the head of the lake, the British squadron with a fair wind sailed across to Sackett’s Harbor, arriving at noon, when the fleet hove to and prepared to send the troops on shore. Then “Sir George hesitated, looked at the place, mistook trees for troops and block-houses for batteries, and ordered the expedition to put back.”
Meantime, however, some Indians had made a dash ashore with canoes and captured a squad of American soldiers, whom they carried off to the British squadron. So Sir George tried again, and on the 29th made a landing. The Americans were outnumbered and at first fled. A new ship called the General Pike, a ship called the Duke of Gloucester, captured at Toronto, and a barrack containing all the stores captured at the same time, were fired. Then the Americans came back to fight, “the British retired to their vessels, and the Americans, as soon as they could credit their senses, hastened to stop the conflagration.” The Duke of Gloucester and the stores, however, were burned. The above quotations are from “Military Occurrences between Great Britain and the United States.”
CAPTN. SIR JAMES LUCAS YEO.KNT.
Soon after his victory at Fort George, Chauncey returned to Sackett’s Harbor. In the meantime Captain Sir James L. Yeo had been placed in command of the British naval forces on Lake Ontario. Yeo, in the frigate Southampton, had captured the little American twelve-gun brig Vixen in the West Indies, on November 22, 1812, but had lost both his ship and his prize by running ashore on Concepcion Island in the Bahama group. He had also sent a challenge to Captain Porter of the Essex, as follows:
“Sir James Yeo presents his compliments to Captain Porter, of the American frigate Essex, and would be glad to have a tête-à-tête, anywhere between the capes of Delaware and Havana, where he would have the pleasure to break his sword over his damned head and put him down forward in irons.”