General Harrison's troops were soon transported by the American squadron to Put-in-Bay, and they occupied Amherstburg on the 23d of September, Proctor having previously fallen back upon Sandwich, after setting fire to the navy yard, barracks, and public stores at the former place. The British general, seeing the enemy determined to follow up his first success by an immediate attack upon Detroit, and being unable with his very inferior numbers to dispute the occupancy of that post, evacuated it and Sandwich on the 26th, also destroying the public property at both posts; and commenced his retreat along the river Thames, with between 900 and 1,000 regulars, chiefly of the 41st regiment. In this reverse of fortune, Tecumseh still adhered to the British standard with unswerving fidelity, and with the Indians covered the retreat. On the 2d of October, General Harrison marched in pursuit with rather above 3,000 men, escorted by three gun-boats and a number of bateaux. On the 4th, he came up with the rear guard, and not only made some prisoners, but succeeded in capturing a great part of the ammunition and stores. By this second reverse, the British were left destitute of the means of subsistence and protracted defence; and their commander being thus compelled to stake the fate of his small army on a general engagement, he took up an excellent position on the right bank of the Thames at the Moravian town, an Indian village 80 miles from Sandwich, his entire force now mustering barely 900 regulars and about 600 Indians. The former were posted in single files in two lines, their left resting on the river, their right on a narrow swamp, beyond which were the Indians, reaching obliquely backwards to a second and much broader swamp, so that neither flank of the allies could be easily turned. The enemy commenced the attack with a regiment of mounted riflemen, the élite of their army, formed into two divisions of 500 men each, one of which charged the regulars with great impetuosity, while the other advanced with a company of foot against the Indians. The regulars, dissatisfied by fancied or real neglect, and dispirited by long continued exposure and privation, made but a very feeble resistance; their ranks were pierced and broken, and being placed between two fires, they immediately surrendered, with the trifling loss of 12 killed and 22 wounded, the British general and a part of the troops seeking safety in flight. But the Indians carried on the contest with the left of the American line with great determination, and did not retreat until the day was irretrievably lost and 33 of their numbers had been slain, including the noble Tecumseh—a warrior not less celebrated for his courage than for his humanity, his eloquence, and his influence over the different tribes. The Americans returned to Sandwich immediately after the action. Proctor is accused of leaving entire the bridges and roads in the rear of his retreating army, and of encumbering it with an unnecessary quantity of his own personal baggage; and certain it is that his defeat led to the harshest recrimination between Sir George Prevost and himself. The general order of the former on the subject was of unparalleled severity, as he said: "On this disgraceful day upwards of 600 officers and soldiers were taken prisoners almost without a struggle, of whom but very few appeared to have been rescued by an honorable death from the ignominy of passing under the American yoke; nor are there many whose wounds plead in mitigation of this reproach." The fugitives made the best of their way to Ancaster, at the head of Lake Ontario; and on the 17th of October they numbered there 240, including the general and 17 officers. The consequence of these disasters was the relinquishment, by the British, of the Michigan territory, with the exception of Michilimakinack; the abandonment of the posts in Upper Canada to the westward of the Grand River, or Ouse; and the loss of the services of the whole of the north-western Indians, with the exception of 2 or 300, who subsequently joined the centre division of the army.[125]
Fort George was taken in May, 1813, by a large American force, under General Dearborn, which compelled Major-General Vincent to withdraw his troops from Fort Erie and Chippewa, and to retreat to Burlington Heights, at the head of Lake Ontario, the British losing 52 killed, besides upwards of 300 wounded and missing. Immediately after the capture of Fort George, General Dearborn pushed forward a body of 3,000 infantry, with nine field pieces and 250 cavalry, for the purpose of dislodging Major-General Vincent from his position. Lieut.-Colonel Harvey,[126] deputy adjutant-general, proposed a night attack on this body, which was approved, and with the 49th, under Major Plenderleath, and five companies of the 8th, under Major Ogilvie, (the whole only 704 firelocks,) he led the attack in gallant style, and completely succeeded in surprising the enemy, who evinced a highly creditable state of order and discipline in repeatedly forming, though compelled as often to disperse before the resistless energy of the British bayonet. Two brigadiers, (Chandler and Winder,) 7 other officers and 116 men, with three guns and one brass howitzer, were taken in this intrepid attack, which, as it reduced the Americans from offensive to defensive operations, was of the greatest importance to the salvation of the Upper Province. The enemy, however, occupied Fort George till the month of December, when they were compelled to evacuate it and retreat across the Niagara.[127] In that month, Colonel Murray surprised, and very gallantly captured by a night assault, Fort Niagara, which was retained by the British till the end of the war.
The recovery of Michilimakinack had long been seriously contemplated by the American government, and would have been attempted in the fall of 1813, but for the lateness of the season, when the expulsion of the British from the banks of the Detroit had opened the passage into Lake Huron. On the other hand, the necessity of retaining a post so favorably situated, if in the hands of an enemy, for annoying the British north-western trade, pressed itself on Sir George Prevost; and in April, 1814, a reinforcement of about 90 men, under an active and zealous officer, Lieut.-Colonel M'Douall, was forwarded with military stores and provisions, by a back route to Michilimakinack. They embarked in twenty-four bateaux from Nottawassega Bay on Lake Huron, distant 260 miles from Michilimakinack, and, after a very tempestuous passage of twenty-five days, reached the fort on the 18th of May. On the 26th July, an American expedition from Lake Erie, consisting of three brigs and two schooners of war, under Captain Sinclair, with nearly 800 troops on board, appeared off Michilimakinack, and a landing was effected by them on the 4th of August. The British force on the island amounted to only 190 men, including regulars, militia, and Indians, with which Lieut.-Colonel M'Donall repulsed every effort of the Americans to approach the fort; so that they were glad, to re-embark the same evening in the utmost haste and confusion, leaving 17 dead on the ground, while the garrison had only one Indian killed. Captain Sinclair stated what does not appear to have been known to Lieutenant Hanks, when he surrendered the island in 1812 to Captain Roberts,[128] "that Michilimakinack is by nature a perfect Gibraltar, being a high inaccessible rock on every side,[129] except the west, from which to the heights you have nearly two miles to pass through a wood so thick, that our men were shot in every direction, and within a few yards of them, without being able to see the Indians who did it." Michilimakinack remained unmolested to the end of the war, when it was restored, by the treaty of peace, to its former possessors.
It has already been mentioned, that among the prisoners taken at the battle of Queenstown, 23 were sent to England for trial as British born subjects and deserters, and that the American government had placed an equal number of British soldiers into close confinement as hostages. In consequence, Sir George Prevost, by a general order of the 27th October, 1813, made known that he had received the commands of the prince regent to put 46 American officers and non-commissioned officers into close confinement as hostages for the 23 soldiers confined by the American government. He at the same time apprized that government, that if any of the British soldiers should suffer death by reason of the guilt and execution of the traitors taken in arms against their country, he was instructed to select out of the American hostages double the number of the British soldiers who might be so unwarrantably put to death, and to cause them to suffer death immediately. The governor-general also notified to the American government, that in the event of their carrying their murderous threat into execution, the commanders of the British forces, by sea and land, were instructed to prosecute the war with unmitigated severity against all the territory and inhabitants of the United States.
On the 10th of December, Sir George Prevost received a communication from Major-General Wilkinson by a flag of truce, stating that the American government, adhering unalterably to their previously declared purpose, had placed 46 British officers into close confinement, there to remain until the same number of American officers and non-commissioned officers were released. In consequence, the governor-general ordered all the American officers, prisoners of war, without exception of rank, to be placed into close confinement as hostages, until the number of 46 was completed over and above those already in confinement. In pursuance of this order, Generals Winder, Chandler, and Winchester, were confined in a private house at Quebec, with as little inconvenience as their security would admit.
On the 15th April, 1814, after some negotiation, opened at the solicitation of the American government, a convention was entered into at Montreal, by which it was agreed to release the hostages and to make an exchange of prisoners, the American government relinquishing its pretensions to retaliate for the prisoners sent to England for legal trial as traitors to their country. This convention was ratified in July, at Champlain, near the lines; but, whether by previous agreement or tacit understanding, the traitors, we believe, escaped the just punishment of their crime.
The remaining events of the war in Canada during the campaigns of 1812, 13 and 14, do not fall within the scope of this memoir. Some we might chronicle with pride, but a few we could not record without shame; and, on the whole, we cannot but think that the same withering influence, which bound the hands and repressed the energies of "him who undoubtedly was the best officer that headed our troops throughout the war,"[130] was visible to the termination of the contest—a contest in which we are satisfied the result would have been very different, "if a man of military genius, courage, quickness, and decision, had held the supreme command."[131] Indeed, when we reflect upon the management of that eventful war, we are often forcibly reminded, in the fatal loss of Sir Isaac Brock, of the pathetic lament of the gallant highlander, who, contrasting the irresolution of his present general with the deeds of his former chief, the renowned Grahame,[132] Viscount Dundee, mournfully exclaimed:
Oh! for one hour of Dundee!
During the progress of the war, the British government made several overtures for a reconciliation; and at length, when Napoleon's disasters commenced, and the Eastern States were threatening to dissolve the union, Madison expressed a wish to treat with England, even at the end of 1813. The negotiations were commenced in earnest at Ghent, in August, 1814, at a time when Great Britain, being at peace with the remainder of the world, was in a condition to prosecute the contest with all her energies; but her people wished for repose after the long and arduous struggle in which they had been engaged; and a treaty of peace, signed at Ghent on the 24th of December, was ratified by the two governments, the plenipotentiaries on both sides waiving every question at issue before the war, and restoring every acquisition of territory during its progress. Thus the Americans had only the Canadian and defenceless side of the Detroit to give in exchange for their fortress of Niagara and their key possession of Michilimakinack.
Early in 1815, Sir George Prevost was directed to return to England for the purpose of meeting accusations relative to his conduct at Plattsburg, which had been preferred by Commodore Sir James Yeo, who, after some delay, produced his charges in legal form; and to afford time for the arrival of the necessary witnesses from Canada, the general court martial was postponed to the 12th of January, 1816. In the mean time the health of the late governor-general, naturally of a delicate cast, became seriously affected, partly from anxiety of mind, and he died in London on the 5th of January, exactly a week preceding the day appointed for his trial. Previously to his departure from Lower Canada, the commons, or French party, voted him the sum of £5,000 for the purchase of a service of plate, as a tribute of respect, which vote was approved of by the prince regent; but the legislative council, or English party, refused their assent to a bill for that purpose.