University of Virginia Library

59. CHAPTER LIX.
THE INVADERS INVADED.

While the northern army was descending the
St. Lawrence, the militia and volunteers under
M`Clure were engaged in frequent skirmishes on
the peninsula; and as soon as the expedition
against Montreal was known to be abandoned, a
British force of fifteen hundred regulars, and
above seven hundred Indians, proceeded towards
Fort George with the determination of entirely
expelling the Americans from the Canadian shore
of the Niagara.

The situation of M`Clure was now extremely
unpropitious; the militia were daily deserting
him, the enemy rapidly advancing, and all was
confusion and dismay. Such was the posture of
affairs when the brave Fraser (the distinguished
aid-de-camp of Pike) arrived at the encampment
and offered his services to M`Clure in any capacity.
The general immediately made him his
aid, and gave him a command of Indians, who
were much attached to him, having been in several
skirmishes with him during the command of
Boyd on the peninsula. Of this Indian corps,
young Logan was second in command.

The remainder of the militia having now completed
the term of service for which they had engaged,
re-crossed the river, and returned to their
homes, with the exception of about one hundred
and fifty, among whom were a double portion of
officers. Those who did remain, could be relied
on, but they were too few to contend, with any
probability of success, against the advancing enemy.
A council of war was therefore called, on
the tenth of December, in which it was proposed
to burn Newark, and abandon the British side of
the Niagara; and to this proposition a majority
acceded.

But the enemy were advancing in great force,
and were now within twelve miles of the fort. To
burn the village at this time would hasten their
approach, and the artillery and baggage would
probably fall into their hands. What was then
to be done? Fraser proposed to send a flag of
truce, on some pretence, to the enemy, and thus
gain time until the sick, the baggage, and the artillery,
could be conveyed across the river, and
then set fire to the village. This proposition was
instantly adopted, and Fraser immediately departed
with the flag, to meet the advancing foe,
accompanied by a major Bennet, who went in the
capacity of his servant, for the purpose of ascertaining,
if possible, the force of the enemy.

Owing to some misunderstanding, the village
was fired sooner than the hour previously agreed
upon, so that Fraser and Bennet narrowly escaped
captivity, or even a worse fate; for they had
left the enemy's camp scarcely three minutes,
when the blaze of Newark burst in full splendor
upon the view of the British army, and highly exasperated
their leader, who instantly ordered out

the dragoons in chase of the flag-bearer and his
companion.

But the same cause which alarmed the enemy,
had, at the same instant, admonished Fraser and
Bennet of their danger; and they consequently
succeeded in outrunning the pursuing troop.
Several of the best mounted were, however, evidently
gaining on the fugitives, when they crossed
a small bridge within three miles of the scene
of conflagration. The planks of which this bridge
was composed were laid loose upon cross beams,
and of this circumstance they determined to take
an advantage. The resolution was formed and
executed in a moment. One of them sprang from
his horse, and while his companion held the bridle,
threw six or eight of the loose planks into the
stream; then remounted, and again galloped forward.

The stream which this bridge covered was narrow,
but deep, and ran between two hills, one of
which Fraser and Bennet were ascending, as the
British dragoons were rushing furiously down the
other, towards the bridge, with their eyes fixed on
the objects of their pursuit, whom they now considered
as certainly within their grasp. “Forward!”
exclaimed their leader. It was his last
exclamation, in the next moment both horse and
rider were precipitated through the timbers into
the stream; three of his followers shared the
same fate, and the rest narrowly escaped by suddenly
checking their steeds. The pursuit was
then relinquished, while Fraser and Bennet arrived
at the American camp in safety. The British
forces arrived only in time to find themselves
without shelter or batteries, and were obliged to
fall back to Queenston, from whence M`Clure in

vain attempted to dislodge them by the batteries
at Lewiston. The inhabitants of Newark had
twelve hours notice to remove their effects, and
those who chose to cross the river, were liberally
provided with all the necessaries of life.

It was now very reasonable to expect some retaliatory
measure on the part of the enemy, and
to be in readiness to meet such measure was the
primary object of the American commander. He
therefore left captain Leonard in command of
Fort Niagara, with about one hundred and sixty
effective regulars, and pointed out verbally, and
particularly in a general order, how he should
prepare for an attack, which he assured him would
certainly take place. He then stationed colonel
Grieves' artillerists, consisting of about twenty
men, with two pieces of artillery, at Lewiston,
under the command of major Bennet, and made
them a present of four hundred dollars for volunteering
their services three weeks. About forty
Canadian volunteers, who had previously espoused
the American cause, he stationed at Schlosser,
under major Mallory, an officer of great merit,
and then transferred his head-quarters to Buffalo,
to provide for the safety of that place and Black
Rock, having first made arrangements for calling
out all the neighboring militia en masse.

Notwithstanding M`Clure's positive orders,
Leonard neglected to prepare for an attack, which
every one knew would shortly be made; and on
the evening of the eighteenth of December, he
left the fort, in company with Sandford, at about
eleven o'clock. Sandford crossed the river, and
Leonard took up his quarters at a farm-house,
two miles distant from the Fort, the principal
gate of which was left open.

At four o'clock the next morning, about four
hundred of the enemy, white and red, crossed
the river, and entered the fort so silently, that
the garrison was not alarmed until they had complete
possession. The only resistance they met
with, was from a guard in one of the block-houses,
and a number of invalids in the hospital, who
defended themselves until they were overpowered
and put to death by the bayonet. A most
horrid slaughter ensued, until above eighty of
the Americans were butchered, and nearly twenty
severely wounded. A non-commissioned officer
and twenty privates, made their escape by scaling
the pickets at the first alarm. As soon as
the slaughter had ceased, and the survivors secured
as prisoners, the private property in the
fort was given up to plunder, and not a single
article was restored to the owners. The women
of the garrison were stripped of their apparel,
and many of them wantonly killed; the persons
of the dead officers were treated with shocking
indignity.

After the enemy had become complete masters
of the fort, Leonard arrived, and was made prisoner.
The British flag was then unfurled, and
the enemy had the entire command of the mouth
of the Niagara.

Lewiston was attacked the same morning by
above seven hundred Indians, and bravely defended
by the gallant Bennet, and his little detachment
of militia, who resisted the assailants
until entirely surrounded. Bennet then desperately
cut his way through the enemy's ranks,
and effected his retreat with the loss of eight
men. Lewiston, Youngstown, Manchester, and
the Indian Tuscarora, were all speedily reduced

to ashes, and many of the men, women, and children,
massacred as they fled from the conflagration.
The brave Mallory, who commanded the
forty Canadian volunteers at Schlosser, boldly
advanced against the Indians while they were in
the act of setting fire to Lewiston, and attacked
them with such impetuosity that they were compelled
to fall back to the foot of the mountain.
The Indians, however, were soon reinforced, and
the gallant Mallory was in turn obliged to retire.

In the course of the same month, Buffalo also
shared the fate of Lewiston,and the whole Niagara
frontier was rapidly laid waste by the enemy,
and entirely depopulated. All the settlements in
a section of country forty miles square, and which
contained more than twelve thousand souls, were
effectually broken up. The roads were filled
with fugitives from the scene of devastation, of
every age, sex, and condition, many of whom
had been reduced from a state of competence
and fair prospects, to the last degree of want and
sorrow. Many of them had beheld their dearest
connexions fall beneath the tomahawk, and horribly
mangled without distinction of sex or age.
With so much terror were they dispersed, that in
some instances, mothers found themselves wandering
with strange children, while the fate of
their own offspring was altogether unknown to
them. The sympathy of their fellow-citizens
was soon awakened by their sufferings, and
such relief afforded them as their immediate
bodily wants demanded. But what relief could
reach their distressed minds? Who could restore
a murdered wife—infant—husband—sister—brother!
Scarcely a family had fled that would ever
again meet all its members in this world; for the

same violence which had reduced them to beggary,
and turned them naked into a northern wilderness,
in the dead of winter, had also severed
the ties which united them, by lopping from
every family-tree some of its most flourishing
branches.

The enemy had been obstinately opposed in
his advance against Buffalo, by two or three hundred
raw and undisciplined militia, commanded
by colonel Blakeslie, who proved himself a hero
on the occasion, as did likewise all his officers,
among whom was the gallant Riddle, who
had previously distinguished himself at Little-York.
Fraser, who was now major of a
battalion of Indians,[1] was wounded in this affair,
after making several prisoners on the margin of
the village. After laying waste the country, reducing
every village to ashes, and inflicting unheard-of
cruelties on the defenceless inhabitants,
the enemy retired from every position he had
occupied in the American territory, except Fort
Niagara, which he put in a better state of defence,
and from it made frequent excursions,
which were generally attended by acts of violence
and cruelty.

Stern Winter had now taken the field, with his
boisterous northern forces, and all military operations
were for a time suspended between belligerent
mortals. During this temporary truce, the
regular troops in the northern military district of
New-York were under the command of the heroic
Brown, who was laboriously and constantly employed
in providing for their comfort and good

order, and in improving and familiarizing himself
in the theory and practice of modern tactics.
When a plan of the ensuing campaign was adopted
by government, the execution of it on the
Niagara frontier was committed to Brown; he
was accordingly promoted to the rank of major-general,
and took the field early in the spring.

The gallant Scott spent a great part of the
winter at Albany. Early in March, he was promoted
to the rank of brigadier-general, and joined
Brown there, on his route to the Niagara frontier,
early in the following April. Soon after,
Brown was recalled to Sacket's Harbor, and the
command in consequence devolved on Scott, who
immediately assembled the army, and established
a camp of instruction at Buffalo. Here, without
regard to rank, all the officers were rigorously
drilled by the commanding general in person;
these in their turn drilled the privates; in a short
time the army was perfectly organized, and, by
the unwearied exertions and example of Scott,
the strictest routine and discipline were established
throughout the whole.

Fraser spent the winter with his friends, and
the following spring was appointed senior lieutenant
in the third rifle regiment, and ordered to
the south; upon which he repaired to Washington
and declined the appointment, preferring to
retain his old grade and to fight in company with
his old friends, to recruiting in the south. Porter
solicited the war-department for the services of
Fraser as his aid-de-camp, engaging to give him
a command of Indians whenever an opportunity
offered for employing them. The secretary of
war immediately conceded to the wishes of the

brave young officer, and promoted him in his own
regiment.

Captain Willoughby remained with the northern
army in winter-quarters at French Mills;
and when off duty amused himself in writing to
his friends and completing his journal, an extract
from which shall be given in the next chapter.
He had received a letter from Fleming, dated at
Quebec, the fourth of November, who informed
him that he was there closely confined, and was
threatened to be detained as a British subject,
and tried for holding a commission in the American
militia. This distressing intelligence,
George immediately communicated to his father,
but carefully withheld it from Catharine.