passed through the enemy's line, pouring broadsides, right and left, at half pistol-shot distance. The remainder of the squadron followed, with a fair wind, and the victory was soon decided. At four o'clock in the afternoon, every British vessel had surrendered to him; and before sunset, he had sent a messenger to General Harrison with the famous dispatch, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." This victory was hailed with unbounded demon

strations of joy. For a moment, party rancor was almost forgotten; and bonfires and illuminations lighted up the whole country.

Perry's victory was followed by immediate and energetic action on the part of Harrison. The command of Lake Erie now being secured, and a reinforcement of four thousand Kentucky volunteers, under Governor Shelby, the old hero of King's Mountain,' having arrived [Sept. 17, 1813], the general proceeded to attack Malden and attempt the recovery of Detroit. The fleet conveyed a portion of the troops across the lake [Sept 27], but on their arrival at Malden, it had been deserted by Proctor, who was fleeing, with Tecumseh and his Indians, toward the Moravian village, on the Thames, eighty miles from

The carnage was very great, in proportion to the numbers engaged. The Americans lost twenty-seven killed, and ninety-six wounded. The British lost about two hundred in killed and wounded, and six hundred prisoners. Perry's treatment of his prisoners received the highest applause. Commodore Barclay declared that his humane conduct was sufficient to immortalize him. That brave commander was born at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1785. He entered the service as midshipman, in 1798. He continued in active service after the close of the Second War for Independence, and died of yellow fever, in the West India seas, in 1819. It was his brother, Commodore M. C. Perry, who effected a treaty with Japan in 1854. See page 512. 2 Page 417.

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Detroit. A body of Americans took possession of Detroit on the 29th of September; and on the 2d of October, Harrison and Shelby, with Colonel Richard M. Johnson and his cavalry (thirty-five hundred strong), started in pursuit of the enemy. They overtook them [Oct. 5] at the Moravian town, when a desperate battle ensued. Tecumseh was slain; and then his dismayed followers, who had fought furiously, broke and fled. Almost the whole of Proctor's command were killed or made prisoners, and the general himself narrowly escaped, with a few of his cavalry. Here the Americans recaptured six brass fieldpieces which had been surrendered by Hull, on two of which were engraved the words, "Surrendered by Burgoyne at Saratoga." These pieces are now at the United States military post of West Point, on the Hudson."

The battle on the Thames was a very important one. By that victory, all that Hull had lost was recovered; the Indian confederacy' was completely broken up, and the war on the north-western borders of the Union was terminated. The name of Harrison was upon every lip; and throughout the entire Republic, there was a general outburst of gratitude. He was complimented by Congress, and by various public bodies; and a member of the House of Representatives asserted, in his place, that his victory was "such as would have secured to a Roman general, in the best days of the republic, the honors of a triumph." Security now being given to the frontier, General Harrison dismissed a greater portion of the volunteers; and leaving General Cass, with about a thousand regulars, to garrison Detroit, proceeded [Oct. 23, 1813] to Niagara, with the remainder of his troops, to join the Army of the Center,' which had been making some endeavors to invade Canada. In the mean while, an Indian war had been kindled in the South; and on the ocean, the laurel wreaths of triumph won by the Americans during 1812," had been interwoven with garlands of cypress on account of reverses. Let us turn a moment to the operations of the Army of the North."

Hostilities were kept up on portions of the northern frontier, during the winter, as well as in the West. In February [1813], a detachment of British soldiers crossed the St. Lawrence on the ice, from Prescott to Ogdensburg, and under pretense of seeking for deserters, committed robberies. Major Forsyth, then in command of riflemen there, retaliated. This was resented, in turn, by

In the present town of Orford, West Canada.

2 Commodore Perry, and General Cass, (now [1856] United States Senator from Michigan,) accompanied General Harrison as volunteer aids. The Americans moved with such rapidity, that they traveled twenty-six miles the first day.

Tecumseh was then only about forty years of age. He was a man of great ability, and had he been born and educated in civilized society, his powerful intellect would have made him one of the most distinguished characters of the age. He possessed great dignity, and always maintained it in his deportment. On one occasion he was to attend a conference held with Harrison. A circle of the company had been formed; and when he came and entered it, there was no seat for him, Harrison's aid having taken the one by the side of the general, intended for him. Harrison perceived that Tecumseh was offended, and told his aid to invite the chief to the seat near him. The aid politely said to Tecumseh, "Your father requests you to take a seat by his side." The offended chief drew his blanket around him, and, with an air of great dignity, said, "The Great Spirit is my father. and I will repose on the bosom of my mother;" and then sat down upon the ground. * Page 281.

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Page 412.

Note 2, page 324.

9

Page 428.

Page 411.

10 Page 415.

* Page 408.

" Page 412.

a British force of twelve hundred men, who crossed on the 21st of February, and after a conflict of an hour, drove out the few military defenders of Ogdensburg, plundered and destroyed a large amount of property, and then returned to Canada. These events accelerated the gathering of the militia in that quarter. Bodies of new levies arrived, almost daily, at Sackett's Harbor, but these, needing discipline, were of little service, as a defense of the country between that point and Ogdensburg.

Being unable to afford assistance to the exposed points in that region, General Dearborn, the commander-in-chief," resolved to attempt the capture of York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, and the principal depository of British military stores for the supply of western garrisons. He embarked seventeen hundred troops on board the fleet of Commodore Chauncey,' at Sackett's Harbor, on the 25th of April; and two days afterward [April 27], they landed on the beach at York, about two miles west from the British works, in the face of a galling fire from regulars and Indians, under General Sheaffe. These were soon driven back to their fortifications, and the Americans, under General Pike, pressed forward, captured two redoubts, and were advancing upon the main work, when the magazine of the fort blew up, hurling stones and timbers in every direction, and producing great destruction of life among the assailants. General Pike was mortally wounded, but he lived long enough to know that the enemy had fled, and that the American flag waved in triumph over the fort at York. The command then devolved on Colonel Pearce; and at four o'clock in the afternoon, the town was in possession of the Americans. General Dearborn, who had remained with the fleet, landed soon after the fall of Pike, but did not assume the immediate command until after the surrender of the town.

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GENERAL PIKE.

When the victory was completed, the fleet and troops returned [May 1] to Sackett's Harbor, but soon afterward proceeded to attack Fort George, on the western shore of Niagara River, near its mouth. After a brief defense [May 27, 1813], the garrison fled to Burlington Heights, at the western extremity of Lake Ontario, thirty-five miles distant, closely pursued by a much larger force,

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2

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1 The Americans lost, in killed and wounded, twenty men. The British loss was about double that number. Page 410. Page 420. General Dearborn had given the command of this expedition to Brigadier-General Zebulon M. Pike, a brave and useful officer, who had been at the head of an expedition, a few years earlier, to explore the country around the head waters of the Mississippi. He was born in New Jersey, in 1779. He died on board the flag-ship of Commodore Chauncey, with the captured British flag under his head, at the age of thirty-four years. In the burial-ground attached to Madison barracks, at Sackett's Harbor, is a dilapidated wooden monument erected over the remains of General Pike and some of his companions in arms. When the writer visited the spot, in 1855, it was wasting with decay, and falling to the earth. Such a neglect of the burial-place of the illustrious dead, is a disgrace to our government.

The British had laid a train of wet powder communicating with the magazine, for the purpose, and when they retreated, they fired it.

General Sheaffe escaped, with the principal part of the troops, but lost all his baggage, books, papers, and a large amount of public property.

At the head of Burlington Bay, in Canada.