And as the war they did provoke,
We’ll pay them with our cannon
The first to do it will be Broke,
In the gallant ship, the Shannon.
This challenge was accepted by Captain Lawrence, and on the 1st of June, the Chesapeake sailed to meet her rival. Towards evening of the same day they met, and instantly engaged with unexampled fury. In a very few minutes the challenge was decided against the Chesapeake; every officer capable of taking command was killed or wounded; Captain Lawrence received a mortal wound, and the rigging was so cut to pieces, that she fell on board the Shannon. Lawrence received a second wound and was carried below. At the moment when Broke boarded her, Lawrence was asked if her colours should be struck. “No,” replied he, “they shall wave while I live!” But her colours were struck already, and the gallant and brave young man, delirious with suffering, cried continually for four days while life lasted, “Don’t give up the ship!” an expression which became consecrated to his countrymen. The Shannon carried her prize into Halifax, and there poor Lawrence died, and was buried, his pall being borne by the oldest captains in the British navy, who mourned for him with generous sympathy. War makes such men enemies, and their duty it is to kill each other!
The next encounter at sea was disastrous likewise to the Americans, the sloop Argus being taken in St. George’s Channel by the British sloop Pelican. The commander of the Argus was mortally wounded, and was buried with honour in England; and soon after the brig Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant Burrows, captured the British brig Boxer, commanded by Captain Blyth. Both commanders were killed in the action, which took place off the coast of Maine, and were interred side by side with military honours at Portland, their bodies being rowed to land by masters of vessels, with the funeral stroke of the oar, while minute-guns were fired by the vessels in harbour.
From sea-fights we now pass on to an encounter between the British and American squadrons on Lake Erie. The American squadron was commanded by Commodore Perry, a young inexperienced man, that of the British by Captain Barclay, a veteran who had lost, like Nelson, one arm while serving under that commander. On the 10th of September, the British commander not having a single barrel of flour left, and no alternative but attempting to clear the lake or starvation, accepted the offer of battle. The wind changed immediately after he had sailed, giving the Americans the advantage. Perry, forming his line of battle, hoisted his flag, and the words of the dying Lawrence, “Don’t give up the ship,” met the eyes of all and were hailed with universal acclamations. Since that day they have become the motto of the American navy. The firing commenced about noon, and being directed principally against the Lawrence, the flag-ship, she soon became unmanageable, having all her crew, with the exception of four or five, killed or wounded. Commodore Perry then left her in an open boat, and transferred his flag to the Niagara, which, passing through the British, poured broadsides into five of the vessels at half pistol-shot. Towards four o’clock every vessel had surrendered. The day, however, was not lost to the British until the first or second in every vessel had been killed or dangerously wounded. Poor Barclay’s one arm was shattered before he left the deck. Commodore Perry gave intelligence of the victory to General Harrison thus laconically: “We have met the enemy, and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop.”
This defeat rendered the rapid retreat of General Proctor and the Indian chiefs who were with him inevitable. They therefore began to dismantle the forts, and to abandon all the positions on the Detroit, thus leaving the Michigan territory again in the possession of the Americans. But they could no longer retreat without fighting. General Harrison passed over between 5,000 and 6,000 men, and interposed between Proctor and the country to which he was directing his steps. On the 5th of October, a severe battle was fought at the river Thames, when the British army was taken by the Americans. On this day the famous Tecumseh was slain, bravely fighting in the thick of the battle. Six hundred of the British were made prisoners. Proctor escaped with 200 cavalry. Among the trophies of the victory were six brass field-pieces, which had been given up by Hull, on two of which were inscribed the words, “Surrendered by Burgoyne at Saratoga.”
By this victory was broken up the great Indian confederacy, in which, though 3,000 warriors still remained, the bond of union was gone with Tecumseh. The Ottawas, Chippewas, Miamis, and Pottawattamies, now sent deputies to General Harrison and made treaties of alliance with the Americans.
But before this confederacy was broken, in the month of August, the Creeks and Seminoles, who had been visited by Tecumseh, and into whom he had breathed his hatred of the whites, had commenced a cruel war against the frontier inhabitants of Georgia, in which nearly 300 white inhabitants had been fearfully massacred. On this, General Jackson, at the head of 2,500 volunteers of Tennessee, marched into the Creek country, while Georgia and Mississippi sent upwards of 1,000 more. Battles were fought at divers places with their wild sonorous Indian names—Tallushatchea, Talladega, Autosse, Emuefau, and others—in all of which the Indians were defeated. The last stand of the Creeks was at the great bend of the Tallapoosa, called by the Indians Tohopeka, and by the whites Horse-shoe-bend. Here about 1,000 of their warriors had assembled in a strong fort, which was soon compassed by a detachment under General Coffee to prevent escape. The main body advanced under General Jackson; the outworks were carried, and the Indians seeing no chance of escape, and scorning to surrender, fought till nearly all were slain. Only two or three Indian warriors were taken. This was the last effort of the Creeks; their power was broken, and the few remaining chiefs gave in their submission.[[75]]