University of Virginia Library

Montgomery.

“We arrived at this place on the evening of
the thirteenth instant. By a pilot-boat, which was
sent out for observation, a British sail was discovered
at anchor near one of the islands, and
the signal for chase was immediately made. By
dark, we were almost within gunshot of the enemy;
one hour more of day light, and she would
have been captured. A very severe storm came
on, and for fear of getting the squadron separated,
we anchored for the night. Captain Richardson
has gone on shore to proceed to Harrison's head-quarters
at Seneca, and accompany the general
down to the fleet. General Clay, the commandant
at Fort Meigs, has received orders from Harrison
to reduce the compass of that fort in such a
manner as to enable three hundred men to hold
it, and then march with the balance of his force to

head-quarters, at Seneca. Preparations are accordingly
making to convey the stores, ammunition,
and cannon, to Cleveland and Seneca, which
it will take about ten days to accomplish. After
these arrangements are completed, a force of five
thousand troops, regulars and militia, will embark
on board this squadron, and be conveyed to Malden,
where Harrison will retrieve all that Hull
lost. Previous to the embarkation, however, you
may expect to hear that we are masters of the
lake.

“On the second instant, an affair took place
at the head of this bay, which will immortalize a
youthful hero, who is scarcely out of his teens.
Captain Croghan, who you know has several
times signalized himself in the Northwestern army,
(particularly in the successful sortie from
Fort Meigs, in May last) has recently been promoted
to the rank of major, and appointed to the
command of Fort Stephenson, formerly called
Fort Sandusky, situated on Sandusky river, about
twenty miles from our present anchorage. The
situation of this post was considered by Harrison
to be so defenceless and exposed, that he directed
Croghan to evacuate it immediately on the
approach of any considerable force of the enemy,
after destroying the public property.

“This gallant youth, however, ventured to
disobey his commander, and saw his little garrison
(of one hundred and sixty men) surrounded
by an immense army of British and Indians, who
had proceeded up the bay in gunboats, under the
command of Proctor and Tecumseh. There was
now no possibility of retreat, even if he had been
so disposed, and Croghan determined to defend

the fort to the last, in which determination he was
supported by every officer and man.

“The fort was encircled by a deep ditch, nine
feet in width, which the enemy had to enter before
he could approach the pickets, through the
heads of which bayonets were driven in a horizontal
direction.

“After directing a tremendous cannonade, for
several hours, against one angle of the fort, without
producing a breach, the enemy determined to
storm; and a close column of three hundred and
fifty regulars was led on by a colonel Short, assisted
by lieutenant Gordon, to make an attack on
the bombarded angle.

“O for that pen with which Miss Porter described
the desperate contest on Dumbarton
walls, that I might give you a just idea of this
tremendous assault—this unparalleled defence.
But as I am not in possession of her pen, I will do
the best I can with my own.

“The gallant Short advanced in the very face
of death, while his followers were, more than
once, thrown into confusion by the American fire.
But again they rallied, and with accelerated motion,
again pushed forward to the attack. In
vain a `leaden hailstorm' beat upon the advancing
phalanx; in vain the horrid engines of destruction
vomited death from their iron throats:
like a mighty torrent, the assailants still rushed
onwards, scattering the dead and wounded in
their crimsoned path.

“For a moment they paused on the steep brink
of the deep-yawning trench that encircled the
fortress. “Leap the ditch!” exclaimed the intrepid
leader of this undaunted column; “cut
down the pickets! give no quarter! advance!”

Instant, on the word, they poured down the bank
like a mountain cataract, whose sounds are whispers
to the clashing of their jostling arms. The
ditch was filled, and a bristling row of iron pikes,
fixed in the heads of the pickets, impaled several
of the impetuous assailants. Again the voice of
their leader urges them forward: “Scale the
pickets, and show no quarter! Storm!”

“This order was distinctly heard by the little
Spartan band which those pickets protected.

“At this moment, what had appeared to the assailants
a blank bastion, flanking the ditch, suddenly
exhibited the blazing throat of ordnance,
from which so tremendous a shower of leaden
slugs and musket balls descended upon the storming
column, that scarcely a man escaped without
a wound. The ditch ran with blood, and was
piled with mangled heaps of the slain and the
wounded.

“Quarter! Quarter!” exclaimed the colonel,
“who had, a moment before, exhorted his men to
give none; but he called too late. Another shower
of death swept through his disordered ranks,
and he fell—waving in his hand a symbol of the
mercy he claimed; and by his side fell the gallant
Gordon. In vain did the surviving officers
without the ditch exert themselves to bring on a
reinforcement; both columns fled in disorder before
the destructive tempest that pursued them,
and with their redoubtable leaders, Proctor and
Tecumseh, sought for safety in the adjacent
woods.

“The din of battle now gradually subsided, until
no sound was heard by the besieged but the
distant yell of the savage, and the shricks and
groans of the miserable wretches in the ditch;

the latter were sounds which could not fail to melt
with pity the brave hearts of American soldiers.
They were well aware of the fate which the enemy
had prepared for them, and to which they
must have submitted, had the fortress been carried;
but the dreadful situation of the vanquished
softened the resentment of the victors. Americans
can be subdued by the sufferings—not by
the prowess of their enemies. Frequent attempts
were made to afford them assistance from the
walls of the fort; but the humane intention was
as often defeated by their own red allies, who had
been left by their commander, scattered at a distance
round the fort, to revenge the loss of their
comrades, by chance-shots from the deadly rifle.

“Night had now thrown her sable mantle round
the scene of blood, when the groans of anguish,
and cries for water, from dying wretches without
the pickets, grew so loud and distressing, that all
fears of danger or treachery were banished from
the humane bosoms of Croghan and his gallant
associates. The extreme darkness of the night,
and the uncertain position of the enemy, rendered
it impossible to afford the unhappy sufferers
such succor as their situation required. All that
could be done for their relief, was to furnish them
water to allay the parching fever of death; and
this was let down to them in buckets and bottles.
Thus this little handful of heroes, after being on
severe duty for thirty successive hours, without
refreshment, willingly hazarded their lives to alleviate
the sufferings of those who had sought, not
only their defeat, but their entire destruction.

“On the following day, the enemy decamped
by the way they came, leaving one hundred and
fifty of their number to be interred or cured by

the Americans; besides seventy stand of arms,
several brace of pistols, and a boat, containing
much clothing and military stores. Harrison has
expressed the warmest approbation of Croghan's
conduct, and recommended him to government
for still higher promotion.

“The moment you receive any intelligence of
Fleming, fail not to communicate it to me, and to
all others interested in his fate. I wish to hear
that my drooping niece is restored to health and
happiness—the latter, however, cannot be soon
expected.

“If we meet the enemy, depend upon it we
shall give a good account of them. A braver
man than Perry never stepped on the quarter-deck
of a ship; and I will venture to affirm that
every officer and man in the squadron, is as brave
as himself. We will all become meat for the
fresh-water fishes, before we suffer the American
flag to be dishonored. I shall write again as soon
as I have any intelligence to communicate; till
then, adieu.