BATTLE OF BRIDGEWATER. 497 XXVIII. notonous roar of the great waterfall, moaning, as it were, CHAPTER over this fatal scene of fraternal strife and military glory. The men, utterly exhausted, were almost perishing with 1814. thirst. All the regimental officers were severely wounded, as were Brown and Scott, who now retired from the field. According to the official reports, there had been killed and wounded on the American side 743 men, on the British 878. Ripley, who had been left in command, after waiting half an hour with no renewal of attack, gave orders to collect the wounded men, and to withdraw to the camp. Vastly to Brown's vexation, the want of horses and the exhausted state of the men made it impossible to bring off the captured artillery, and when an officer was sent back for that purpose, it was found that the enemy had reoccupied the hill. Excessively mortified, Brown ordered Ripley to march the next morning to recover the cannon; but not more than 1600 men could be mustered, and those stiff from yesterday's exertions, and Brown was at last induced, by Ripley's remonstrances, to recall his orders. Brown's retirement to be cured of his wounds, having left Ripley again in command, he destroyed the bridge over the Chippewa, and a part of the stores, and retired to a point opposite Black Rock, whence he sent the wounded to Buffalo, whither Brown had himself gone. If the battle of Chippewa had left any doubts, this midnight conflict of Bridgewater, or Lundy's Lane, as it is sometimes called, would seem to have established beyond all question that Brown and his army could fight— a question not personal merely, but one which the want of energy and decision in former campaigns had rendered of national importance. Brown, however, was not satisfied. There was, certainly, no longer any great prospect of conquering Upper Canada, but he refused to allow XXVIII CHAPTER the withdrawal of the army, which he ordered to Fort Erie; and disgusted at Ripley's want of sympathy, Scott 1814. being disabled from further service at present, he sent for Gaines to assume the command. Some additional volunteers were thrown into the fort, and preparations were made to defend it to the last. It was a week before Drummond, who had himself been wounded in the late battle, was in a condition to Aug. 4. move. He then advanced with 4000 men. A strong detachment, sent at the same time across the Niagara to attack Buffalo, was repulsed, much to Drummond's vexation, by a body of American riflemen.stationed at Black Rock; but some boats, carried over land from the Niagara into Lake Ontario, succeeded, under the command Aug. 12. of a British naval officer, in cutting out from under the guns of Fort Erie two vessels of Perry's late squadron, moored to guard it on the water side. After a heavy bombardment, which did, however, but little damage, Aug. 15 the British, in three columns, advanced to a midnight assault. Gaines, however, was on the alert. The attack on the left was speedily repulsed. On the right, the British, braving the American fire, advanced again and again, breast deep in the water, almost within arms' length of the intrenchments, from which they were as often driven back. The center column, more lucky, after two or three repulses, effected a lodgment in one of the bastions, which, in spite of every effort to dislodge them, they held till near morning, when they fled, frightened by the explosion of a quantity of cartridges, which they took for a mine. In this disastrous affair the British lost 962 men. The American loss was but 84. Drummond, however, undiscouraged, still kept up the siege. July 31. Chauncey, meanwhile, by the completion of his new ALARM ALONG THE COAST. 499 XXVIII. Aug. 29. ships, had gained the command of Lake Ontario. His CHAPTER fleet consisted of the Superior 62, Mohawk 42, four sloops-of-war, and two smaller vessels, the original 1814. schooners being laid aside, and, soon after, the Oneida also, as unable to keep up with the rest of the fleet. Yeo was blockaded in Kingston, where he had a ship of 100 guns on the stocks. Though it was now too late to carry out Brown's schemes, Izard was ordered to Sack- Aug 12. ett's Harbor with the flower of his troops, some 4000 out of 7000 men, to be ready to co-operate, should occasion occur—a march which he very reluctantly undertook. Almost simultaneously with Brown's invasion of Canada, the president had issued a circular letter to the July 4. states, to detach and hold ready for instant service their quotas of 93,500 militia-a kind of call for which, on all former occasions, an act of Congress had been thought necessary, but which the president now made on his own responsibility, alarmed by repeated information of ships and troops collecting at Bermuda for an attack, of which sometimes New York, and sometimes the Chesapeake, if not, indeed, Washington itself, was named as the object. A tenth military district was also erected, including Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia north of the Rappahannock, the command of which was given to General Winder, lately released by exchange. Meanwhile, the sea-coast states and cities, sharing in the president's alarm, began to take measures for their own defense. Governor Barbour garrisoned Norfolk with militia from the back country. Governor Winder called out several thousand militia for the defense of Maryland, especially of Baltimore, where the citizens were busy in throwing up intrenchments. The town of Providence voted $20,000 for fortifications. The Portland ship. XXVIII. CHAPTER masters organized themselves into a company of sea fencibles. The British having taken possession of Eastport, 1814. on the extreme eastern frontier of Maine, with a declaraTuly 14. tion, however, that they only intended to occupy the islands of Passamaquoddy Bay, upon one of which Eastport stood, and the title to which, under the treaty of 1783, still remained an unsettled point, Dearborn, in command at Boston, made a call on the governor for 1100 men, as a part of the quota assigned to Massachusetts by the president's late proclamation; and as the forts in Boston harbor had but few regulars in them, the July 18. men were furnished, without stopping to discuss the question of the right of command. The greater part of the gun-boats had been concentrated in four principal squadrons, at New York, in the Delaware, in the Chesapeake, and at Charleston. The squadron in the Chesapeake, under the late act for appointing flotilla officers, had been placed under the command of that same Joshua Barney, who had made himself, in John Adams's time, so conspicuous as a parti san of France, and the commander of two French frig ates. Barney was already blocked up in the Patuxent, where he succeeded, however, by the help of the militia, in repelling one or two attacks. The only exploit of the New York flotilla, which had also the defense of Long Island Sound, seems to have been the exchange of some shots, at a respectful distance, with the English blockading vessels off New London. Those vessels presently Aug. 10. increased the alarm on the coast by bombarding Stonington, though without much effect. Not placing much reliance on this gun-boat squadron, the Common Council of the city of New York issued an exhortation to the citizens to postpone discussions as to the origin and conduct of the war, and to unite in measures of defense. This call was seconded by a public meeting, addressed DEFENSE OF WASHINGTON. 501 XXVIII. by the now venerable Willett, and in which Wolcott CHAPTER and many other Federalists took part. New works were planned; the Tammany Society, the Free-masons, and 1814. other associations, set the example of giving a day's Aug. 11. labor gratis, and the Common Council agreed to advance means to support a garrison of 3000 militia. The forces assigned to Winder, on taking the command of his new military district, were some fragments of regulars, less than 500, mostly raw recruits in and about Washington, including the garrison of the fort of that name below Alexandria; the militia of the District of Columbia, some 2000 strong; and an authority, in case of actual or menaced invasion, to call upon the State of Maryland for 6000 militia, the whole of her lately-assigned quota, upon Virginia for 2000, and upon Pennsylvania for 5000. Winder proposed to call out at once July 9. a part of this militia, and to place them in a central camp, whence they might march to Washington, Annapolis, or Baltimore, either of which might be approached so near by water as to be liable to be struck at before a force could be collected. The president seemed inclined to this plan, but it was opposed by Armstrong, who objected to it that militia were always the most effective when first called out. Baltimore, he thought, could defend itself; Washington he did not believe would be attacked. Calls for militia were freely made to garrison Buffalo and Sackett's Harbor, and thereby to sustain Brown's invasion of Canada, but Armstrong hesitated at the additional expense of the calls proposed by Winder; and, in the existing state of the finances, not without reason. Of the loan of twenty-five millions, sole resource for conducting the campaign, the government had yet asked for but ten millions. This amount had been subscribed at the former rate of 88 per cent., not without difficulty, and a condition as to half of it, that the con |