Detroit in 1815.
So it happened that when two brigs came down the lake from Detroit and anchored under the guns of Fort Erie on October 8, 1812, Elliott learned the fact instantly. One of these brigs was of Yankee build. She was new and almost ready for service at Detroit, when that post fell into the hands of the British, and was at once taken into their service and called the Detroit to commemorate their taking of the town. The other brig was called the Caledonia. She was the property of a British fur-buying company and had come from the upper lakes (although the Americans did not know it at the time) loaded with fine furs to the value of $200,000. What Elliott did know, when he saw the two brigs, was that those two vessels were just what he wanted for use on the lake, and that it would be very much better for the American cause to go over and take them than to buy and build a score. And this he determined to do.
As good fortune had it, a detachment of seamen that included an ensign and forty-seven men and petty officers arrived at Black Rock on the evening of the day when the brigs reached Fort Erie. These men were unarmed, but Elliott was not without resource. At that time Winfield Scott, of whom every school-boy has read, was a lieutenant-colonel in command of troops at Black Rock, and to him Elliott applied for arms and men with success. It is not uninteresting to note that when application was made to the militia for arms for the expedition across the river the order to obtain them read: “all the pistols, swords, and sabres, you can borrow at the risk of the lenders.” Enough owners of weapons willing to lend without making a claim on the Government in case of loss were found, and the arms provided for the sailors. A company of fifty soldiers under Captain Towson volunteered to help. Two big boats were prepared in Shajackuda Creek, that empties into the Niagara below Black Rock, and at midnight one hundred and twenty-four men, all told, embarked.
Let it be kept in mind that the Detroit was a well-built war-brig, fully armed and manned, that the Caledonia was well manned by the hardy lake seamen accustomed to dealing with the savage Indians of the far West, and that both vessels were anchored under the guns of a strong military post, full of experienced men. There were three batteries of great guns in place, besides field artillery that could be brought to bear in a few minutes. To cut out these two vessels was a task but little less hazardous than the attack which Decatur made on the frigate Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli.
One needs to see the mighty sweep of the Niagara River past Black Rock to appreciate the task of the seamen under Elliott who had to row the boats up stream from the creek and across to the Canadian shores.
1. Buffalo.
2. Fort Erie.
3. Black Rock.
4. British batteries.
5. Sailors’ barracks.
6. Artillery encampment.
7. Squaw Island.
8. Strawberry Island.
9. Detroit aground.
10. Caledonia ashore.
11. Navy-yard.
12. British artillery.
13. Point of embarkation.
Capture of the British Brigs Detroit and Caledonia, October 12, 1812.
From a wood-cut prepared under the supervision of Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott himself.
They embarked at midnight, and at 1 o’clock found themselves in the current of the Niagara. For two hours thereafter they pulled with steady stroke, and then as the anchor-watch on the Detroit was noting the hour of 3, a pistol-shot from a big boat that suddenly loomed alongside, roused the crew from their over-strong feeling of security. A volley of musketry followed and then over the rail tumbled fifty men, led by Lieutenant Elliott, and the Detroit was in American hands. The surprise of the Detroit was completely successful. A minute or two later the other boat, under Sailing-master Watts, was beside the Caledonia. Her more watchful crew were up and ready to greet these men with a volley, but the attack was resistless and “in less than ten minutes I had the prisoners all seized, the top-sails sheeted home, and the vessels under weigh.” So wrote Lieutenant Elliott.