Events on Lake Ontario

While the battle was raging on the water, there was a sharp conflict on land. When the British squadron came around Cumberland Head, the British army moved forward and attempted to force their way across the Saranac at the sites of the two bridges. After a desperate but short conflict, with varying fortunes for both parties, the British were repulsed by the gallant men led by Macomb and Mooers. The Americans were driving back some of the enemy who had forced their way across the river near the site of the upper bridge, when tidings came that the British fleet had just surrendered. The Americans gave hearty cheers, and the enemy wavered. Prevost was disheartened by the disaster to the navy, and, naturally timid in the presence of danger, saw with alarm the gathering of the neighboring militia, who threatened his flanks and rear. He ceased fighting at twilight, and prepared for a retreat. At a little past midnight he fled in such haste toward Canada, that he left his sick and wounded and a vast amount of stores behind. Light troops, militia and volunteers, started in pursuit, but heavy rains compelled them to give up the chase. The British loss, in killed, wounded and deserted, from the 6th to the 11th, was about twenty-five hundred men; that of the Americans, only one hundred and twenty. Throughout the land the victory was applauded with the greatest enthusiasm, and Macomb and Macdonough were highly honored, each having a gold medal awarded to him by Congress.

With the flight of Prevost and his army from Lake Champlain ended the military movements of importance on the northern frontier. Hostilities soon afterward ceased, as we have observed, on the Niagara frontier; and during a greater portion of the season Commodore Chauncey, one of the most vigilant and active of naval officers, had been compelled by circumstances to remain almost inactive at Sackett's Harbor. He was blockaded by a British squadron; and when he was ready to go out and fight the block-aders, by having the armament of a large vessel completed, he was prostrated by severe illness. It was the last of July before his squadron squadron was fully ready for sea. On the 31st of that month he was carried, in a convalescent state, on board of his flag-ship, the Supine, and the squadron sailed out on a cruise. It blockaded the harbor of Kingston, and Chauncey vainly tried to draw Sir James Yeo out for combat. At the close of September, Chauncey was informed that the St. Lawrence, a frigate pierced for one hundred and twelve guns, which had been built at Kingston, was ready for sea, when the commodore prudently raised the blockade and returned to Sackett's Harbor. The St. Lawrence sailed in October with more than a thousand men, accompanied by other vessels-of-war; and with his big ship, Sir James was really lord of the lake. The Americans determined to match the St. Lawrence, and the keels of two first-class frigates were laid. One of them, the New Orleans, began at Sackett's Harbor and partly finished when peace came early in 1815, may yet be seen housed on the stocks as she was left by the builders more than sixty years ago. Chauncey expected Yeo would attack his squadron in the Harbor, but he did not; and when frost had closed the lake, the war ended on the northern frontier.

We have observed that the military-station on the island of Mackinaw was captured by the British just before the fall of Detroit in 1812. This station was the key to the vast fur-trade of the Northwest, and a land and naval expedition was planned, in the spring of 1814, for its recapture. A little squadron under Commander St. Clair, and a land force led by Lieutenant-Colonel Croghan of Fort Stephenson fame, were prepared, and they left Detroit at the beginning of July. A part of this force proceeded against the post of the Northwest Fur Company, at the Falls of St. Mary, the agents of which were among the most active of the British emissaries in inciting the Indians to make war on the Americans. When the armament appeared before the post, the keepers of it fled. Everything valuable that could not be carried away was destroyed, when the whole expedition started for Mackinaw. The post there was too strongly garrisoned to be taken by this small American force, and after an attempt to do so, the enterprise was abandoned. Some vessels of the squadron cruised in those waters for a time, and after some exciting experiences the expedition returned to Detroit late in August, 1814. No further military movements were undertaken in that region afterward, excepting a terrifying raid which General McArthur, with about seven hundred mounted men from Kentucky and Ohio, made through western Canada, to create a diversion in favor of the American army on the Niagara frontier. It was one of the boldest operations of the war, on land. McArthur skurried throughout the region from the western end of Lake Ontario to the Detroit River, destroying property that might benefit the enemy, frightening the people everywhere, and keeping the militia from joining Drummond's ranks.