On the same day that the battle of the Thames was fought, Commodore Chauncey, in pursuit of Yeo's fleet on Lake Ontario, captured a cutter and four transports, on board of which were two hundred and sixty-four British officers and soldiers.
CHAPTER IX. WILKINSON'S EXPEDITION.
Armstrong's Plans—Position of the Troops—Descent of the St. Lawrence—Battle of Chrysler's Field—Hampton's Defeat—Cost of the Campaign—Effects on the Niagara Frontier—Capture of Fort Niagara—Destruction of Buffalo and other Villages.
The final military operations of this year on the northern border were the most disappointing, and on the whole the most disgraceful, of any that had been undertaken. General John Armstrong had become Secretary of War early in the year, and in February had submitted a plan, which the President at once approved, for the conquest of Canada by means of an expedition against Montreal.
Armstrong had seen service in the Revolution, and was the author of the anonymous "Newburg Addresses," which had given Washington so much trouble. Although he planned the expedition in February, he allowed the entire summer to go by before attempting its execution, and it set out in October, the worst time of year for such an undertaking. The first requisite for any military movement is, that it shall be under the supreme command of some one man. But the left wing of the army which was to make this one was commanded by General James Wilkinson, at Sackett's Harbor, while the right wing was under General Wade Hampton, at Plattsburg, and between these two officers there was not only no cordial friendship, but a positive jealousy that rendered it almost impossible for them to act in concert. Although Wilkinson was the ranking officer, Hampton maintained that his own must be considered as a separate and independent command, and himself not subordinate to anybody but the Secretary of War. He thus put in practice on a small scale a vicious principle whose advocacy on a vastly larger scale has since given some of his descendants an unenviable prominence.
So old a soldier as Armstrong should have known that the first thing necessary to the success of his scheme was the removal of one or the other of these officers, and conferring upon some one general the absolute command of all forces that were to take part in it. As he had stationed himself and his War Department at Sackett's Harbor, he perhaps imagined that he could direct the expedition from there, and, holding both generals subordinate to himself, cause the two wings to act in concert. If so, he was wofully mistaken. A man sixty years of age, who owned three thousand slaves and was accustomed to no check upon his least caprice, who now had four thousand troops under his command —a large number in that war—and was distant a hundred and fifty miles from his superior, with a wilderness between, could not be expected to hold himself subordinate to anybody.
General Wilkinson had removed most of the troops from Fort George on the Niagara, taking them down the lake, and he now had a total force of about eight thousand men. The right wing, under Hampton, numbered half as many more. The final plan was, to move down the St. Lawrence with Wilkinson's force, while Hampton's moved northward to unite with it at or near the mouth of the Chateaugua; the combined force then to strike for Montreal. Wilkinson rendezvoused his troops at Grenadier Island, eighteen miles below Sackett's Harbor, near the point where the waters of the lake find their outlet in the St. Lawrence. The British were apprised of the movement, and drew a large force from the Niagara frontier to Kingston, supposing that was to be the point of attack; and indeed this had been the first intention of the Americans. To strengthen this impression on the part of the enemy, and induce him to hold his forces at Kingston as long as possible, Wilkinson appointed a second rendezvous at the mouth of French Creek, eighteen miles farther down. The command of the advance was given to General Jacob Brown, who had successfully defended Sackett's Harbor in May. On the 1st and 2d of November the British squadron attacked the advance, but without effecting anything.