the death of their leader, fled in despair. The victory was complete. So ended the campaign in the West. The Indian confederacy was broken to pieces. All that Hull had lost was regained. Michigan was recovered. Ohio no longer feared invasion. Perry swept Lake Erie with his fleet. Canada was prostrated before the victorious army of Harrison.

Meanwhile, the Creeks of Alabama, kinsmen of the Shawnees, had 7 taken up arms. In the latter part of August, Fort Mims, forty miles north of Mobile, was surprised by the savages, who appeased their thirstfor blood with the murder of nearly four hundred people; not a woman or child was spared, and but few of the men in the fort escaped. The news of the massacre spread consternation throughout the Southwest. The governors of Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi Territory made immediate preparations for invading the country of the Creeks. The Tennesseeans, under command of General Jackson, were first to the rescue. A detachment of nine hundred men, led by General Coffee, reached the Indian town of Tallushatchee, attacked it, burned it, left not an Indian alive. On the 8th of November a battle was fought at Talladega, east of the Coosa, and the savages were defeated with severe losses. In the latter part of the same month another fight occurred at Autosse, on the south bank of the Tallapoosa, and again the Indians were routed.

MISS.

Black

Ft.Strother

Talladega
Horseshoe Band
Emutfau

Conecul R.

Autossa

Ft.Mias

L 0

R.

I D

A

100

150

200

Mobile

MILES 50

SCENE OF THE CREEK WAR,
1813-14.

During the winter Jackson's troops, unprovided and starving, became mutinous and were going home. But the general set the example of living on acorns; then rode before the rebellious line and threatened with death the first mutineer who stirred. And no man stirred. On the 22d of January, 1814, the battle of Emucfau was fought on the west bank of the Tallapoosa. The valor of the Tennesseeans again gave them the victory. At Tohopeka, called by the whites the Horseshoe Bend, the Creeks made their final stand. Here the Tallapoosa winds westward and northward, enclosing a large tract of land in the form of a peninsula with a narrow neck. This position the Indians had fortified with more than their usual skill. The whites, led by General Coffee, surrounded the place, so as to prevent escape by crossing the river. On the 27th of March, the main body of whites under General Jackson stormed the breastworks and drove the Indians into the bend. There, huddled together without the possibility of escape, a thousand Creek warriors, with the women and

19:3

children of the tribe, met their doom. The desperate Red men asked no quarter, and none was given. The few chiefs who were still abroad sent in their submission; the spirit of the nation was completely broken.

On the 25th of April, 1813, General Dearborn, commanding the Army of the Centre, embarked his forces at Sackett's Harbor, near the eastern extremity of Lake Ontario. The object of the expedition was to capture Toronto, the capital of Upper Canada. Here was the most important dépôt of supplies in British America. The American fleet under Commodore Chauncey had already obtained the mastery of the lake, so that Dearborn's passage was unopposed. On the 27th of the month a force of seventeen hundred men, commanded by General Pike, was landed within two miles of Toronto. At the water's edge they were met by the British. The Americans drove the enemy for a mile and a half, stormed a battery, and rushed forward to carry the main defences. At that moment the British magazine blew up with terrific violence. The assaulting column was covered with the débris of the explosion. Two hundred men were killed or wounded. General Pike was fatally injured, but lived long enough to hear the shout of victory; for the Americans, first shocked and then maddened by the calamity, made a furious charge and drove the British out of the town. General Sheaffe with a body of regulars escaped; the rest were taken prisoners. Property to the value of a half million dollars was secured to the victors.

While this movement was taking place the enemy made a descent on Sackett's Harbor. By the withdrawal of the American forces that post had been left exposed. The British succeeded in destroying a quantity of stores; but General Brown rallied the militia, and drove back the assailants with considerable loss. Meanwhile, the victorious troops at Toronto had re-embarked and crossed the lake to the mouth of the Niagara. On the 27th of May the Americans, led by Generals Chandler and Winder, crossed the river and stormed Fort George, on the Canada shore. The British hastily destroyed their posts along the Niagara and retreated to Burlington Bay, at the western extremity of the lake. The Americans, pursuing them thither, were attacked in the night, but succeeded in repulsing the enemy with loss.

During the months of summer military operations on the frontier were suspended. After the battle of the Thames, General Harrison had transferred his forces to Buffalo, and then resigned his commission. On account of old age and ill health General Dearborn also withdrew from the service, and was succeeded by General Wilkinson. The next cam

paign, which was planned by General Armstrong, secretary of war, embraced the conquest of Montreal. For this purpose the Army of the Centre, under Wilkinson, was ordered to join the Army of the North at some convenient point on the St. Lawrence. The enterprise was attended-;} with many difficulties and not a few delays. Not until the 5th of November did a force of seven thousand men, embarking from the mouth of French Creek, twenty miles north of Sackett's Harbor, sail down the St. Lawrence for the conquest of Montreal. Parties of British, Canadians and Indians, gathering on the northern bank of the river, constantly impeded the progress of the expedition. General Brown was landed with a considerable force to disperse these bands or drive the enemy into the interior. On the 11th of the month a severe battle was fought at a place called Chrysler's Field. Neither party gained a victory, but the advantage remained with the British. The Americans, having lost nearly three hundred men in the fight, passed down the river to St. Regis, on the southern shore, where the forces of General Hampton were expected from Plattsburg to form a junction with Wilkinson's command. But Hampton did not stir; and the project of attacking Montreal had to be abandoned. The Americans then went into winter quarters at Fort Covington, at the fork of Salmon River, nine miles from St. Regis.

In the mean time, the British on the Niagara frontier rallied andadvanced against Fort George. General McClure, the commandant, abandoned the place on the approach of the enemy, but before retreating burned the Canadian town of Newark. It cost the people of Northern New York dearly; for the British and Indians crossed the river, captured Fort Niagara, and fired the villages of Youngstown, Lewiston and Manchester. On next to the last day of the year Black Rock and Buffalo were laid in ashes.

Nix

In the sea-fights of 1813 victory generally declared for the British. .... a During the year both nations wasted much blood and treasure on the ocean. Off the coast of Demarara, on the 24th of February, the sloopof-war Hornet, commanded by Captain James Lawrence, fell in with the British brig Peacock. The ships were equally matched. A terrible battle of fifteen minutes ensued, and the Peacock, already sinking, struck her colors. While the Americans were trying to transfer the conquered crew the ocean yawned and the brig sank out of sight. Nine British sailors and three of Lawrence's men were sucked down in the whirlpool.

On returning to Boston the command of the Chesapeake one of the best frigates in the American navy-was given to Lawrence, and again he put to sea. Before sailing he received a challenge from Captain

Broke, of the British frigate Shannon, to come out and fight him. Lawrence ought not to have accepted the banter; for his equipments were incomplete and his crew ill assorted, sick and half mutinous. But he was young, and the favorite of the nation; fired with applause, he went unhesitatingly to meet his foe. Eastward from Cape Ann the two vessels met on the first day of June. The battle was obstinate, brief, dreadful. In a short time every officer who could direct the movements of the Chesapeake was either killed or wounded. The brave young Lawrence was struck with a musket-ball, and fell dying on the bloody deck. As they bore him down the hatchway he gave in feeble voice his last heroic order-ever afterward the motto of the American sailor-" DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP!" The British were already leaping on deck, and the flag of England was hoisted over the shattered vessel. Both ships were charnel-houses; but the Shannon was still able to tow her prize into the harbor of Halifax. There the bodies of Lawrence and Ludlow, second in command, were tenderly and honorably buried by the British.

The next important naval battle was fought on the 14th of August between the American brig Argus and the British Pelican. The former vessel had made a daring cruise about the coasts of England, capturing more than twenty ships. Herself overtaken by the Pelican, she was obliged, after a severe conflict, to surrender. On the 5th of September another British brig, the Boxer, cruising off the coast of Maine, was overhauled and captured by the American Enterprise, commanded by Captain Burrows. The fight raged for three-quarters of an hour, when the Boxer surrendered. Captain Blyth, the British commander, was killed; and the gallant Burrows received a mortal wound. The bodies of both officers were taken to Portland and buried side by side with military honors. All summer long Captain Porter in the frigate Essex cruised in the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. For five months he was the terror of British merchantmen in those broad waters. On the 28th of the following March, while the Essex was lying in the harbor of Valparaiso, she was beset, contrary to the law of nations, by two powerful British vessels, the Phoebe and the Cherub. The Essex had been crippled by a storm, and was anchored in neutral waters; in that condition Captain Porter fought his two antagonists until nearly all of his men were killed or wounded; then struck his colors and surrendered. Notwithstanding the losses sustained by the American navy, privateers continued to scour the ocean and capture British vessels.

From honorable warfare the naval officers of England stooped to marauding along the sea-shore. Early in the year a squadron entered

Delaware Bay and anchored before Lewistown. A requisition on the inhabitants to supply the fleet with provisions was met with a brave refusal. A threat to burn the town was answered with a message of defiance. A bombardment of twenty-four hours' duration followed; the houses were much injured, and the people fled, carrying their property to places of safety. Other British men-of-war entered the Chesapeake and burned several villages on the shores of the bay. At the town of Hampton, just above the Roads, the soldiers and marines perpetrated such outrages as covered their memory with shame. Commodore Hardy, to whom the blockade of the New England harbors had been assigned, behaved with more humanity; even the Americans recognized and praised his honorable conduct. The year 1813 closed without decisive results.

IN

N the spring of 1814 another invasion of Canada was planned. The Niagara frontier was the scene of operations; but there was much delay in bringing the scattered detachments of General Wilkinson's army into proper position. Not until the 3d of July did Generals Scott and Ripley, at the head of three thousand men, cross the Niagara from Black Rock to Fort Erie. This post, garrisoned by two hundred British, was surrendered without a battle. On the following day the Americans advanced down the river-bank in the direction of Chippewa village. Before reaching that place, however, they were met by the British army, led by General Riall. On the evening of the 5th a severe battle was fought on the plain just south of Chippewa River. The Americans, led on by Generals Scott and Ripley and the gallant Major Jessup, won the day; but their loss amounted to three hundred and thirty-eight men. The British veterans, after more than five hundred of their number had fallen, were driven into their entrenchments.

General Riall retreated first to Queenstown and afterward to Burlington Heights. General Scott, commanding the American right, was detached to watch the movements of the enemy. On the evening of the 25th of July he found himself suddenly confronted by Riall's army, strongly posted on the high grounds in sight of Niagara Falls. Here