PROCTOR'S DEFEAT. 437 XXVI. that the British ships all soon struck. The combat had CHAPTER lasted about three hours, with a loss on either side of 150 in killed and wounded, Barclay himself among the 1813. latter. Having converted a part of the captured vessels into transports, and taking Harrison's troops on board, Perry Sept. 27. conveyed them to the Canada side. In anticipation of this movement, Proctor, after dismantling the fort at Malden, and burning the barracks, had commenced his retreat, carrying off all the horses and cattle in the neighborhood. The want of horses, of which there was not one in the army, the vessels having barely sufficed to bring over the men, seemed to render pursuit hopeless, but, on arriving opposite Detroit, this difficulty was removed by the appearance of Johnson's mounted regiment, just from Fort Meigs. After two days' prep aration, during which the Territorial government of Michigan was reorganized, the army marched up the Oct. 2. Thames in pursuit. Proctor's retreat had been greatly delayed by the quantity of plunder and private baggage. In two days his rear was overtaken, and all his stores and ammunition captured. The main body was found, the next day, near the Moravian town, the British, some Oct. 5. 800 in number, drawn up with their left on the river and their right on a swamp occupied by Tecumseh and a body of Indians, but with no cover in front except an open wood. To fill up the space between the river and the swamp, the enemy had been displayed in open order. Completely broken by the first charge of Johnson's mounted men, drawn up in column, without an attempt at further resistance, they threw down their arms and surrendered. Proctor and his suite, with some two hundred men, escaped, by timely flight, to Ancaster, at the head of Lake Ontario. The Indians in the swamp Oct. 4. CHAPTER fought better; but Tecumseh having fallen, they also XXVI. fled, leaving some fifty killed behind. The American 1813. loss amounted to 17 killed and 30 wounded; among the latter, Johnson himself, very severely, for whom, also, the honor was claimed of having slain Tecumseh with his own hand-a claim not without its influence on Johnson's ultimate attainment of the vice-presidency. An armistice having been concluded with the nearer Indian tribes, the Kentucky volunteers, successful for once, returned home in triumphant exultation, sounding the praises of Harrison and Johnson. Cass, soon after appointed Governor of Michigan, was left with his Oct. 20. brigade to garrison Detroit. Harrison, with the remainder of the regulars, some 1300 in number, embarked for Buffalo, to co-operate with the army of Lake Ontario in completing the anticipated conquest of Upper Canada. WILKINSON'S FIRST CAMPAIGN. 439 CHAPTER XXVII. DESOLATION CAMPAIGNS OF HAMPTON AND WILKINSON. XXVII. 1813. Aug. 8. LEAVING Flourney in command at New Orleans, CHAPTER Wilkinson, on his way to assume the command on Lake Ontario, at length arrived at Washington, where he was shown a return of troops at Fort George, Sackett's Harbor, and Burlington, amounting to 15,000 men, and was promised still further re-enforcements and ample supplies. He suggested that, instead of attacking Kingston directly, it might be better first to destroy the enemy's force at the head of Lake Ontario, and then to draw him from Kingston by a march on Montreal; but Armstrong still insisted upon the direct attack, agreeing, however, in case the force should prove insufficient for that, to put in execution Wilkinson's latter suggestion. On reaching Sackett's Harbor, Wilkinson found things Aug. 20. very different from Armstrong's representations: no means of transport, a third of the troops sick, officers very few in number, and both officers and men raw and uninstructed. Chauncey had again proceeded up the lake, in hopes to bring Yeo to action, and Wilkinson CHAPTER followed to Fort George. So long as Yeo kept the lake, XXVII. the fleet was the only secure means of transporting the 1813. troops there to Sackett's Harbor. But, for the next Sept. 4. month, Chauncey was occupied in maneuvering with Sept. 28. Yeo, whom, at last, after an indecisive action off York, he drove to take refuge in Burlington Bay, where he held him blockaded. Meanwhile boats were got ready for transporting the troops down the lake; and Wilkinson, returning in advance of this movement to Oct. 6. Sackett's Harbor, found Armstrong just arrived there to superintend operations in person. Old, dilapidated, so sick with lake fever as to be often confined to his bed, and not pleased with this unusual interference, Wilkinson, according to his own account, wished to give up the command, but Armstrong, who expressed no little contempt for Morgan Lewis, almost as much an invalid as Wilkinson, and for Boyd, the next in rank to Lewis, would not consent. The troops, after a good deal of delay, at last arrived from Niagara, and, with those at Sackett's Harbor, were presently Oct. 20 transported, with their stores and baggage, to Grenadier Island—an operation, owing to the stormy weather, not accomplished without great risk and damage. This island, some nine miles south of the point where the St. Lawrence leaves the lake, was a position equally favorable to a move on Kingston or on Montreal. Upon which to move seems to have been for some time a debated point between Wilkinson and Armstrong. The return of the British fleet, which succeeded in eluding Chauncey's blockade, and the arrival of re-enforcements at Kingston-though a fleet of seven transports from York, with some 300 troops on board, was intercepted by Chauncey, and five of them, including the two lately-captured American schooners, were taken— HAMPTON'S CAMPAIGN. 441 XXVII. seem finally to have decided in favor of a movement CHAPTER on Montreal, the responsibility for which was afterward warmly contested between Wilkinson and Armstrong, 1813. who mutually ascribed to each other lack of courage to attack Kingston. To this jealousy between the general and the secretary was added another. Hampton and Wilkinson were mortal enemies, and Hampton had only accepted the command on Lake Champlain on condition of not falling under Wilkinson's orders-a difficulty which Armstrong, it would seem, had expected to get over by acting himself as commander in chief. Under orders from Armstrong, in expectation of an earlier movement on the part of Wilkinson, Hampton had advanced Sept. 19. from Plattsburgh with 4000 men and ten pieces of artillery. He had marched at first upon the direct northern road toward St. John's, but failing to find water for his draft cattle, owing to an unusal drought, he had deviated toward the left, and had followed the only road in that direction as far as Chateaugay Four Corners, about half way from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence, and a few miles south of the Canada line. Here he received express directions from Armstrong to re- Sept. 20. main till informed that Wilkinson was ready to move; but, having been joined by several detachments of militia called out to re-enforce him, and having ascertained that Prevost's whole force did not exceed 2000 men, mostly militia, and those very much scattered, he resolved, without regard to his orders, by a bold stroke to monopolize to himself the glory of conquering Canada. Having advanced some twenty miles into the Oct. 2 enemy's country, cutting a road through the woods, and, being now within striking distance of the first British post, he detached Colonel Purdy on a long |