The Attack on Fort Oswego, Lake Ontario, May 6, 1814.

From an engraving, published in 1815, by R. Havel, after a drawing of Lieutenant Hewett, Royal Marines.

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When the four ships with their eighty-nine guns had begun to make the air vibrate around the fort, and the two brigs with their thirty-two guns were making the bark and branches fly from the trees of the forests round about, eight hundred British soldiers were landed under Lieutenant-Colonel Fischer, while two hundred sailors, armed with boarding-pikes, were sent along, under Captain Mulcaster. Covered by the fire of the four ships, mounting eighty-nine guns, and two brigs, mounting thirty-two guns, “the debarkation of the troops” was “very cleverly accomplished,” according to one author; and when this was done “the soldiers and seamen behaved with great gallantry and steadiness, their officers leading them, sword in hand, up a long, steep hill.” In short, by behaving “with great gallantry” this body of 1,000 men, supported by ships carrying one hundred and twenty-one guns, were able to drive Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell and almost three hundred soldiers and sailors away from his four guns!

But in doing so they lost twenty-two killed and seventy-three wounded, including “the gallant Captain Mulcaster, dangerously.” These figures are from the report of the British Colonel Fischer. The Montreal was “set on fire three times and much cut up in hull, masts; and rigging” by the fire of the two long twenty-fours of the fort, that were worked steadily in spite of the storm of iron fired from the British fleet. The Americans lost six killed, thirty-eight wounded, and twenty-five missing, both of these last falling into the enemy’s hands.”

“Mitchell then fell back unmolested to the falls, where there was a large quantity of stores. But he was not again attacked.” It was here that Sir James Yeo missed his opportunity, for with his superior force he might easily have driven Mitchell still farther away, one would suppose, and at the falls were stored twenty-two long thirty-two pounder cannon, ten long twenty-fours, three short forty-twos, ten big anchor cables, and no end of other material for Chauncey’s squadron, and all of this was within a month or so conveyed to Sackett’s Harbor, though not without some adventure. Sir James made no effort to take it, but contented himself with raising the Growler with her valuable cargo, and destroying the fort and barracks.

After his victory at Oswego, Sir James Yeo refitted and then sailed to Sackett’s Harbor and established a blockade that for a time was not a little annoying to the Americans, for it prevented their bringing in the war material from Oswego. However, in spite of the blockade, Master Commandant M. T. Woolsey volunteered to bring the supplies around by water as far as Stony Creek, which was but three miles from Sackett’s Harbor, whence, in spite of bad roads, they could be easily brought in. Accordingly the big guns and cables were loaded on nineteen barges at Oswego Falls, and at sunset of May 28, 1814, this little fleet rowed boldly out into the lake. The weather was thick, but the water was smooth, and fair progress was made during the night. At sunrise, next morning, the boats were obliged to put into Big Sandy Creek, which was eight miles from the harbor; that is, all but one put into this creek. The nineteenth, loaded with two long twenty-four pounder cannon and a cable, went astray in the fog and one of the British cruisers picked it up.

This seemed on the face of it very hard fortune, but in the end it proved just the reverse. Sir James, having learned from the captured crew all about the rest of the transports, sent two heavy gun-boats, three cutters, and a gig, under Captain Popham, of the Montreal, to capture the whole fleet. The British boat squadron carried one long thirty-two pounder, one short sixty-eight, one short thirty-two, two long twelves, and two brass sixes. The crews aggregated one hundred and eighty men.