In February General Wilkinson had removed his army from French Mills to Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, and a month later he added one more to the futile invasions of Canada. At the head of four thousand men, he crossed the border, March 30th, met a party of British at Odelltown, with whom skirmishing was carried on for three miles along the road, and found the enemy seriously in his path at La Colle Mill, on the Sorel, four miles from Rouse's Point, where about two hundred men were posted in a stone mill and a block-house, on either side of La Colie Creek.
Wilkinson brought up two pieces of artillery and planted them within two hundred yards of the stone mill. Then he disposed his forces in such a way as nearly to surround it and cut off the retreat of the enemy when his guns should knock the walls of the mill about their heads. But though the guns were served with great skill and rapidity for two hours, the walls would n't budge, and it did not occur to the enemy to attempt a retreat. On the contrary, from their secure position they used their rifles so effectively that Wilkinson's men suffered severely. Captain McPherson, commanding the battery, was wounded in the chin, but tied it up with his handkerchief and remained at his post till another shot broke his thigh, when he was borne off. His successor, Lieutenant Larrabee, was soon shot through the lungs, when he also was borne to the rear; and Lieutenant Sheldon then kept the battery in play till the close of the fight.
Major Hancock, commanding the enemy, having received reënforcements that swelled the number of his men to about a thousand, ordered a sortie, to capture the battery. His troops suddenly burst from the mill, and made a rush for the guns. But this subjected them to a fire from the American infantry, by which they suffered heavily, and they were obliged to return to the mill and the blockhouse. A second and more desperate sortie had the same result, and the enemy then shut themselves up in the house and defied all attempts to drive them out. As the condition of the roads prevented him from bringing up heavier artillery, Wilkinson gave up the expedition and returned through mud, snow, and rain to Plattsburg. The affair had cost him a hundred and fifty-four men, and inflicted on the enemy a loss of sixty-one. The General asked for a court-martial, and was tried and acquitted; but this ended his military career. General George Izard succeeded to his command.
Both belligerents were still building ships for service on Lake Ontario. The British had a large one on the stocks at Kingston, and the Americans an equally large one at Sackett's Harbor. All sorts of insignificant affairs took place during the spring and summer along the shores of this lake and Lake Champlain, effecting nothing, but keeping the people in a state of alarm.
On one occasion three boats approached Sackett's Harbor, carrying two barrels of powder, with which it was intended to blow up the new vessel on the stocks. But they were discovered and fired at, whereupon the crews hastily threw the powder overboard, fearing it would be exploded by a bullet, and pulled away.
Finding that he could not destroy the new ship, Sir James Yeo determined to render her useless by capturing the guns, rigging, and stores intended for her, which were at Oswego. Accordingly he organized an expedition of about three thousand men, the troops being commanded by General Drummond, and sailed for that place early in May. The fort at Oswego, an old affair, in a dilapidated condition, was on one side of the river, and the village-on the other. Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell, commanding at the fort, saw the approaching expedition early in the morning of May 5th. As his force was too small to be divided, he sent a large number of tents across the river, and had them pitched in front of the village. This convinced the enemy that there was a heavy force on that side of the river, and he confined his attention to the fort.
The ships bombarded the work, and a force attempted to land by means of boats. But Colonel Mitchell sent a few men down the shore with one old gun, and as soon as they came within range it made such havoc among the boats' crews that they pulled back to the fleet. One of the boats, sixty feet long, propelled by three sails and thirty-six oars, was so shattered that it was abandoned and drifted ashore.
The next day the fleet returned to the attack, and this time succeeded in landing about two thousand men. Colonel Mitchell, who had been reenforced by a small body of militia, gradually retired before the invaders, making a gallant resistance as long as it was of any use, and then retreated to a point several miles up the river, whither most of the stores had been removed, and destroyed the bridges behind him. The enemy raised and carried away the schooner Growler, which, as it contained some of the guns for the new vessel, the Americans had sunk on the approach of the expedition; burned the barracks, took whatever he could find that was movable, and on the 7th sailed away. The action had cost him two hundred and thirty-five men, killed, wounded, or drowned. The Americans had lost sixty-nine.
Five days later a British squadron appeared before Charlotte, at the mouth of Genesee River. The village was guarded by sixty men, with one field-piece. Word was sent to General Peter B. Porter, who arrived on the morning of the 13th, just in time to refuse a demand for the surrender of the place. Two gunboats then entered the river and bombarded the town for an hour and a half, throwing in shells, rockets, and round shot. The women and children were removed, a militia force of three hundred and fifty men was collected, and dispositions were made to capture the boats if they should venture farther up the river. A second demand for a surrender, with a threat to land twelve hundred men and destroy the village, was refused by Porter, and on the 15th the boats bombarded the place again for some hours, and then withdrew. In the evening the squadron sent a force on shore at Poultneyville, where some stores were captured; but a small body of militia under General John Swift soon appeared and drove the enemy precipitately back to their boats.
As Sir James Yeo was blockading Sackett's Harbor for the special purpose of preventing the armament of the new vessel from being carried in, the wits of the Americans were taxed to get the guns and cables there. Transportation all the way by land would have been tedious and costly. The task was assigned to Captain Woolsey, of the navy. He caused a story to be circulated, in a way that made it sure to reach the vigilant enemy, that the guns were to be transported by way of Oneida Lake. They were on nineteen boats, and on the 28th of May he ran the rapids and arrived at Oswego with them at dusk. The plan was, to coast along down the lake as far as Sandy Creek, eight miles from Sackett's Harbor, run up the creek, and thence carry them overland. Accompanied by a hundred and twenty riflemen, under Major Appling, the flotilla went down the lake by night as far as Big Salmon River, and in the morning one boat was missing. At this point a body of Oneida Indians joined the expedition, and at noon on the 29th it reached Sandy Creek. The missing boat had gone on to Sackett's Harbor, where—perhaps purposely—it fell into the hands of the blockaders, to whom its crew told the whole story of Woolsey's flotilla. Sir James at once sent a force, in two gunboats and four smaller craft, to capture it. This expedition sailed up Sandy Creek on the morning of the 30th, thinking to make sure prize of the flotilla and its cargo of guns and cables. But Major Appling had placed his riflemen in ambush along the bank, and near the flotilla was Captain Melville with a company of light artillery and two six-pounders. The enemy's gunboats opened fire on the flotilla as fast as they came within gunshot, and a party of troops was landed. As soon as they were within range of Appling's rifles, he poured in a deadly fire upon their flank and rear, while at the same time the artillery played upon them in front. In ten minutes the British lost eighteen men killed and fifty wounded, when the whole force surrendered. The captured boats mounted seven guns, and there were a hundred and sixty-five prisoners. The Americans had two men wounded. The Indians took no active part in the fight.