University of Virginia Library

5. CHAPTER V.

We did not know the cause of the last explosion, until
after the firing ceased. I had seen an awful black cloud,
and objects in the air that I took for men; but little did we
imagine the explosion had cost us so dear. Our schooner
lay at no great distance from the common landing, and no
sooner were we certain of the success of the day, than Mr.
Osgood ordered his boat's crew called away, and he landed.
As I belonged to the boat, I had an early opportunity of
entering the town.

We found the place deserted. With the exception of our
own men, I found but one living being in it. This was an
old woman whom I discovered stowed away in a potatoe
locker, in the government house. I saw tables set, and
eggs in the cups, but no inhabitant. Our orders were of
the most severe kind, not to plunder, and we did not touch
a morsel of food even. The liquor, however, was too much
for our poor natures, and a parcel of us had broke bulk in
a better sort of grocery, when some officers came in and
stove the casks. I made sail, and got out of the company.
The army had gone in pursuit of the enemy, with the exception
of a few riflemen, who, being now at liberty, found
their way into the place.

I ought to feel ashamed, and do feel ashamed of what
occurred that night; but I must relate it, lest I feel more
ashamed for concealing the truth. We had spliced the
main-brace pretty freely throughout the day, and the pull I
got in the grocery just made me ripe for mischief. When
we got aboard the schooner again, we found a canoe that
had drifted athwart-hawse and had been secured. My
gun's crew, the Black Jokers, wished to have some fun in
the town, and they proposed to me to take a cruise ashore.

We had few officers on board, and the boatswain, a boatswain's
mate in fact, consented to let us leave. We all
went ashore in this canoe, then, and were soon alongside
of a wharf. On landing, we were near a large store,
and looking in at a window, we saw a man sitting asleep,
with a gun in the hollow of his arm. His head was on the
counter, and there was a lamp burning. One of the blacks
pitched through the window, and was on him in a moment.
The rest followed, and we made him a prisoner. The poor
fellow said he had come to look after his property, and he
was told no one would hurt him. My blacks now began to
look about them, and to help themselves to such articles as
they thought they wanted. I confess I helped myself to
some tea and sugar, nor will I deny that I was in such a
state as to think the whole good fun. We carried off one
canoe load, and even returned for a second. Of course
such an exploit could not have been effected without letting
all in the secret share; and one boat-load of plunder was
not enough. The negroes began to drink, however, and I
was sober enough to see the consequences, if they were
left ashore any longer. Some riflemen came in, too, and I
succeeded in getting my jokers away.

The recklessness of sailors may be seen in our conduct.
All we received for our plunder was some eight or ten gallons
of whiskey, when we got back to the harbour, and this
at the risk of being flogged through the fleet! It seemed to
us to be a scrape, and that was a sufficient excuse for disobeying
orders, and for committing a crime. For myself, I
was influenced more by the love of mischief, and a weak
desire to have it said I was foremost in such an exploit, than
from any mercenary motive. Notwithstanding the severity
of the orders, and one or two pretty sharp examples of punishment
inflicted by the commodore, the Black Jokers were
not the only plunderers ashore that night. One master's-mate
had the buttons taken off his coat, for stealing a feather
bed, besides being obliged to carry it back again. Of course
he was a shipped master's-mate.

I was ashore every day while the squadron remained in
the port. Our schooner never shifted her berth from the
last one she occupied in the battle, and that was pretty well
up the bay. I paid a visit to the gun that had troubled us

all so much, and which we could not silence, for it was
under a bank, near the landing-place. It was a long French
eighteen, and did better service, that day, than any other
piece of John Bull's. I think it hulled us several times.

I walked over the ground where the explosion took place.
It was a dreadful sight; the dead being so mutilated that it
was scarcely possible to tell their colour. I saw gun-barrels
bent nearly double. I think we saw Sir Roger Sheafe, the
British General, galloping across the field, by himself, a few
minutes before the explosion. At all events, we saw a
mounted officer, and fired at him. He galloped up to the
government-house, dismounted, went in, remained a short
time, and then galloped out of town. All this I saw; and
the old woman in the potato-locker told me the general had
been in the house a short time before we landed. Her account
agreed with the appearance of the officer I saw; though I
will not pretend to be certain it was General Sheafe.

I ought to mention the kindness of the commodore to the
poor of York. As most of the inhabitants came back to
their habitations the next day, the poor were suffering for
food. Our men were ordered to roll barrels of salt meat
and barrels of bread to their doors, from the government
stores that fell into our hands. We captured an immense
amount of these stores, a portion of which we carried away.
We sunk many guns in the lake; and as for the powder,
that had taken care of itself. Among other things we took,
was the body of an English officer, preserved in rum, which,
they said, was General Brock's. I saw it hoisted out of the
Duke of Gloucester, the man-of-war brig we captured, at
Sackett's Harbour, and saw the body put in a fresh cask. I
am ashamed to say, that some of our men were inclined to
drink the old rum.

We burned a large corvette, that was nearly ready for
launching, and otherwise did the enemy a good deal of
harm. The inhabitants that returned were very submissive,
and thankful for what they received. As for the man of
the red store, I never saw him after the night he was plundered,
nor was anything ever said of the scrape.

Our troops had lost near three hundred men in the attack,
the wounded included; and as a great many of these green
soldiers were now sick from exposure, the army was much

reduced in force. We took the troops on board on the 1st
of May, but could not sail, on account of a gale, until the
8th, which made the matter worse. Then we got under
way, and crossed the lake, landing the soldiers a few miles
to the eastward of Fort Niagara. Our schooner now went
to the Harbour, along with the commodore, though some of
the craft remained near the head of the lake. Here we took
in another lot of soldiers, placed two more large batteaux in
tow, and sailed for the army again. We had good passages
both ways, and this duty was done within a few days. While
at the Harbour, I got a message to go and visit Bill Swett,
but the poor fellow died without my being able to see him.
I heard he was hurt at York, but never could come at the
truth.

On the 27th May, the army got into the batteaux, formed
in two divisions, and commenced pulling towards the mouth
of the Niagara. The morning was foggy, with a light wind,
and the vessels getting under way, kept company with the
boats, a little outside of them. The schooners were closest
in, and some of them opened on Fort George, while others
kept along the coast, scouring the shore with grape and canister
as they moved ahead. The Scourge came to an anchor
a short distance above the place selected for the landing,
and sprung her broadside to the shore. We now kept up a
steady fire with grape and canister, until the boats had got
in-shore and were engaged with the enemy, when we threw
round-shot, over the heads of our own men, upon the English.
As soon as Colonel Scott was ashore, we sprung our
broadside upon a two-gun battery that had been pretty busy,
and we silenced that among us. This affair, for our craft,
was nothing like that of York, though I was told the vessels
nearer the river had warmer berths of it. We had no one
hurt, though we were hulled once or twice. A little rigging
was cut; but we set this down as light work compared to
what the old Black Joke had seen that day month. There
was a little sharp fighting ashore, but our men were too
strong for the enemy, when they could fairly get their feet
on solid ground.

Just after we had anchored, Mr. Bogardus was sent aloft
to ascertain if any enemy were to be seen. At first he found
nobody; but, after a little while, he called out to have my

gun fired at a little thicket of brushwood that lay on an inclined
plain, near the water. Mr. Osgood came and elevated
the gun, and I touched it off. We had been looking
out for the blink of muskets, which was one certain guide to
find a soldier; and the moment we sent this grist of grape
and canister into those bushes, the place lighted up as if a
thousand muskets were there. We then gave the chaps the
remainder of our broadside. We peppered that wood well,
and did a good deal of harm to the troops stationed at the
place.

The wind blew on shore, and began to increase; and the
commodore now threw out a signal for the boats to land, to
take care of the batteaux that were thumping on the beach,
and then for their crews to assist in taking care of the
wounded. Of course I went in my own boat, Mr. Bogardus
having charge of her. We left the schooner, just as we
quitted our guns, black with powder, in our shirts and trowsers,
though we took the precaution to carry our boarding-belts,
with a brace of pistols each, and a cutlass. On landing,
we first hauled up the boats, taking some dead and
wounded men out of them, and laying them on the beach.

We were now ordered to divide ourselves into groups of
three, and go over the ground, pick up the wounded, and
carry them to a large house that had been selected as a hospital.
My party consisted of Bill Southard, Simeon Grant,
and myself, we being messmates. The first man we fell in
with, was a young English soldier, who was seated on the
bank, quite near the lake. He was badly hurt, and sat
leaning his head on his hands. He begged for water, and
I took his cap down to the lake and filled it, giving him a
drink; then washing his face. This revived him, and he
offered us his canteen, in which was some excellent Jamaica.
To us chaps, who got nothing better than whiskey, this was
a rare treat, and we emptied the remainder of his half pint,
at a pull a-piece. After tapping this rum, we carried the
poor lad up to the house, and turned him over to the doctors.
We found the rooms filled with wounded already, and the
American and English doctors hard at work on them.

As we left the hospital, we agreed to get a canteen a-piece,
and go round among the dead, and fill them with Jamaica.
When our canteens were about a third full, we came upon a

young American rifleman, who was lying under an apple-tree.
He was hit in the head, and was in a very bad way.
We were all three much struck with the appearance of this
young man, and I now remember him as one of the handsomest
youths I had ever seen. His wound did not bleed,
though I thought the brains were oozing out, and I felt so
much sympathy for him, that I washed his hurt with the
rum. I fear I did him harm, but my motive was good. Bill
Southard ran to find a surgeon, of whom several were
operating out on the field. The young man kept saying
“no use,” and he mentioned “father and mother,” “Vermont.”
He even gave me the names of his parents, but I
was too much in the wind, from the use of rum, to remember
them. We might have been half an hour with this
young rifleman, busy on him most of the time, when he
murmured a few words, gave me one of the sweetest smiles
I ever saw on a man's face, and made no more signs of life.
I kept at work, notwithstanding, until Bill got back with the
doctor. The latter cast an eye on the rifleman, pronounced
him dead, and coolly walked away.

There was a bridge, in a sort of a swamp, that we had
fired on for some time, and we now moved down to it, just
to see what we had done. We found a good many dead,
and several horses in the mire, but no wounded. We kept
emptying canteens, as we went along, until our own would
hold no more. On our return from the bridge, we went to
a brook in order to mix some grog, and then we got a full
view of the offing. Not a craft was to be seen! Everything
had weighed and disappeared. This discovery knocked
us all a-back, and we were quite at a loss how to proceed.
We agreed, however, to pass through a bit of woods,
and get into the town, it being now quite late in the day.
There we knew we should find the army, and might get
tidings of the fleet. The battle-ground was now nearly deserted,
and to own the truth we were, all three, at least two
sheets in the wind. Still I remember everything, for my
stomach would never allow me to get beastly drunk; it rejecting
any very great quantity of liquor. As we went
through the wood, open pine trees, we came across an officer
lying dead, with one leg over his horse, which was dead
also. I went up to the body, turned it over, and examined

it for a canteen, but found none. We made a few idle remarks,
and proceeded.

In quitting the place, I led the party; and, as we went
through a little thicket, I heard female voices. This startled
me a little; and, on looking round, I saw a white female
dress, belonging to a person who was evidently endeavouring
to conceal herself from us. I was now alone, and walked
up to the women, when I found two; one, a lady, in dress
and manner, and the other a person that I have always supposed
was her servant. The first was in white; the last in
a dark calico. They were both under thirty, judging from
their looks; and the lady was exceedingly well-looking.
They were much alarmed; and, as I came up, the lady
asked me if I would hurt her. I told her no; and that no
person should harm her, while she remained with us. This
relieved her, and she was able to give an account of her
errand on the field of battle. Our looks, half intoxicated,
and begrimed with the smoke of a battle, as we were,
certainly were enough to alarm her; but I do not think one
of the three would have hesitated about fighting for a female,
that they thus found weeping, in this manner, in the open
field. The maid was crying also. Simeon Grant, and
Southard, did make use of some improper language, at first;
but I brought them up, and they said they were sorry, and
would go all lengths, with me, to protect the women. The
fact was, these men supposed we had fallen in with common
camp followers; but I had seen too much of officers' wives,
in my boyhood, not to know that this was one.

The lady then told her story. She had just come from
Kingston, to join her husband; having arrived but a few
hours before. She did not see her husband, but she had
heard he was left wounded on the field; and she had come
out in the hope of finding him. She then described him, as
an officer mounted, with a particular dress, and inquired if
we had met with any such person, on the field. We told
her of the horseman we had just left; and led her back to
the spot. The moment the lady saw the body, she threw
herself on it, and began to weep and mourn over it, in a very
touching manner. The maid, too, was almost as bad as
the mistress. We were all so much affected, in spite of the
rum, that, I believe, all three of us shed tears. We said all

we could, to console her, and swore we would stand by her,
until she was safe back among her friends.

It was a good bit before we could persuade the lady to
quit her husband's body. She took a miniature from his
neck, and I drew his purse and watch from him and handed
them to her. She wanted me to keep the purse, but this we
all three refused, up and down. We had hauled our manly
tacks aboard, and had no thoughts of plunder. Even the
maid urged us to keep the money, but we would have nothing
to do with it. I shall freely own my faults; I hope I
shall be believed when I relate facts that show I am not
altogether without proper feelings.

The officer had been hit somewhere about the hip, and
the horse must have been killed by another grape-shot, fired
from the same gun. We laid the body of the first over in
such a manner as to get a good look at him, but we did not
draw the leg from under the horse.[1]

When we succeeded in persuading the lady to quit her
husband's body, we shaped our course for the light-house.
Glad were we three tars to see the mast-heads of the shipping

in the river, as we came near the banks of the Niagara.
The house at the light was empty; but, on my hailing, a woman's
voice answered from the cellar. It was an old woman
who had taken shelter from shot down in the hold, the
rest of the family having slipped and run. We now got
some milk for the lady, who continued in tears most of the
time. Sometimes she would knock off crying for a bit,
when she seemed to have some distrust of us; but, on the
whole, we made very good weather in company. After
staying about half an hour at the light-house, we left it for
the town, my advice to the lady being to put herself under
the protection of some of our officers. I told her if the
news of what had happened reached the commodore, she
might depend on her husband's being buried with the honours
of war, and said such other things to comfort her as came
to the mind of a man who had been sailing so near the
wind.

I forgot to relate one part of the adventure. Before we
had got fairly clear of the woods, we fell in with four of
Forsyth's men, notoriously the wickedest corps in the army.
These fellows began to crack their jokes at the expense of
the two females, and we came near having a brush with
them. When we spoke of our pistols, and of our determination
to use them, before we would let our convoy come
to harm, these chaps laughed at our pop-guns, and told us
they had such things as `rifles.' This was true enough,
and had we come to broadsides, I make no doubt they
would have knocked us over like so many snipes. I began
to reason with them, on the impropriety of offending respectable
females; and one of the fellows, who was a kind of
a corporal, or something of that sort, shook my hand, said
I was right, and offered to be friends. So we spliced the
main-brace, and parted. Glad enough was the lady to be
rid of them so easily. In these squalls she would bring up
in her tears, and then when all went smooth again, she
would break out afresh.

After quitting the light, we made the best of our way for
the town. Just as we reached it, we fell in with a party of
soldier-officers, and we turned the lady and her woman over
to their care. These gentlemen said a good word in our

favour, and here we parted company with our convoy, I
never hearing, or seeing, anything of either afterwards.

By this time it was near dark, and Bill Southard and I
began to look out for the Scourge. She was anchored in
the river, with the rest of the fleet, and we went down upon
a wharf to make a signal for a boat. On the way we saw
a woman crying before a watch-maker's shop, and a party
of Forsyth's close by. On enquiry, we learned these fellows
had threatened to rob her shop. We had been such
defenders of the sex, that we could not think of deserting
this woman, and we swore we would stand by her, too.
We should have had a skirmish here, I do believe, had not
one or two rifle officers hove in sight, when the whole party
made sail from us. We turned the woman over to these
gentlemen, who said, “ay, there are some of our vagabonds,
again.” One of them said it would be better to call in their
parties, and before we reached the water we heard the bugle
sounding the recall.

They had given us up on board the schooner. A report
of some Indians being out had reached her, and we three
were set down as scalped. Thank God, I've got all the
hair on my head yet, and battered as my old hulk has got
to be, and shattered as are my timbers, it is as black as a
raven's wing at this moment. This, my old ship-mate, who
is logging this yarn, says he thinks is a proof my mother
was a French Canadian, though such is not the fact, as it
has been told to me.

Those riflemen were regular scamps. Just before we
went down to the wharf, we saw one walking sentinel before
the door of a sort of barracks. On drawing near and
asking what was going on inside, we were told we had nothing
to do with their fun ashore, that we might look in at a
window, however, but should not go in. We took him at
his word; a merry scene it was inside. The English officers'
dunnage had been broken into, and there was a party
of the corps strutting about in uniform coats and feathers.
We thought it best to give these dare-devils a berth, and so
we left them. One was never safe with them on the field
of battle, friend or enemy.

We met a large party of marines on the wharf, marching
up under Major Smith. They were going to protect the

people of the town from further mischief. Mr. Osgood was
glad enough to see us, and we got plenty of praise for what
we had done with the women. As for the canteens, we had
to empty them, after treating the crew of the boat that was
sent to take us off. I did not enter the town after that
night.

We lay some time in the Niagara, the commodore going
to the harbour to get the Pike ready. Captain Crane took
the rest of us off Kingston, where we were joined by the
commodore, and made sail again for the Niagara. Here
Colonel Scott embarked with a body of troops, and we went
to Burlington Bay to carry the heights. They were found
to be too strong; and the men, after landing, returned to the
vessels. We then went to York, again, and took possession
of the place a second time. Here we destroyed several
boats, and stores, set fire to the barracks, and did the enemy
a good deal of damage otherwise; after which we left the
place. Two or three days later we crossed the lake and
landed the soldiers, again, at Fort Niagara.

Early in August, while we were still in the river, Sir
James Yeo hove in sight with two ships, two brigs, and two
schooners. We had thirteen sail in all, such as they were,
and immediately got under way, and manœuvred for the
weather-gauge. All the enemy's vessels had regular quarters,
and the ships were stout craft. Our squadron sailed
very unequally, some being pretty fast, and others as dull
as droggers. Nor were we more than half fitted out. On
board the Scourge the only square-sail we had, was made
out of an English marquée we had laid our hands on at
York, the first time we were there. I ought to say, too,
that we got two small brass guns at York, four-pounders, I
believe, which Mr. Osgood clapped into our two spare ports
forward. This gave us ten guns in all, sixes and fours.
I remember that Jack Mallet laughed at us heartily for the
fuss we made with our pop-guns, as he called them, while
we were working upon the English batteries, saying we
might just as well have spared our powder, as for any good
we did. He belonged to the Julia, which had a long thirty-two,
forward, which they called the “Old Sow,” and one
smart eighteen aft. She had two sixes in her waist, also;
but they disdained to use them.

While we were up at the harbour, the last time, Mr. Mix,
who had married a sister of Mr. Osgood, took a party of us
in a boat, and we went up Black River, shooting. The two
gentlemen landed, and as we were coming down the river,
we saw something swimming, which proved to be a bear.
We had no arms, but we pulled over the beast, and had a
regular squaw-fight with him. We were an hour at work
with this animal, the fellow coming very near mastering us.
I struck at his nose with an iron tiller fifty times, but he
warded the blow like a boxer. He broke our boat-hook,
and once or twice, he came near boarding us. At length a
wood-boat gave us an axe, and with this we killed him.
Mr. Osgood had this bear skinned, and said he should send
the skin to his family. If he did, it must have been one of
the last memorials it ever got from him.