WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
The following pages contain a collection of Stories of the War of 1812, with Great Britain; and of the Recent War, with the Republic of Mexico.
Rightly considered, the first of these national wars was a supplement to the glorious War of Independence. Up to the time when our government boldly threw down the gauntlet of defiance to the most powerful nation of Europe, in defence of Free Trade and Sailor’s Rights, the British nation regarded us as revolted subjects, successful for the moment, but destined always to be governed by British influence and ultimately to be reconquered.
The events of the second war with Great Britain finished what the first had begun, and set the seal on our Independence. From the period of its conclusion, our flag was respected by Britain and all other nations. Our naval prowess was recognized as a fixed fact.
The recent war with Mexico has taught the world another lesson. It has shown that with a standing army of very few men, and a good militia system, the republic is capable of raising large and efficient armies, and conquering a military republic, of immense population, wealth, and resources, possessing a powerful standing army; accustomed, in consequence of the distracted state of the country, to frequent action and constant discipline.
The wars which teach these lessons are worthy the attention of the youth of our country; and we have endeavored to render these stories of the wars sufficiently attractive to win that degree of attention and interest which will insure a future study of American history.
In June, 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain. The chief cause of the war was the impressment of American seamen by the British. General Hull, with twenty-five hundred men, took post at Detroit, in Michigan. Soon afterward, the British general, Brock, with thirteen hundred men, appeared before Detroit, erected batteries, and summoned Hull to surrender. He refused, and the British opened their fire upon the works. On the 26th, they crossed the river and moved forward to the attack. The American troops were prepared to receive them, and eager for the conflict. But as the British approached, Hull ordered his men to retire into the fort, and hoisted a white flag. In a short time, terms of surrender were agreed upon, and the whole American army, with all its ammunition and stores were given up to the British. This surrender excited the indignation of the people. Hull was accused of cowardice, tried by a court martial, and sentenced to be shot. The President, however, in consideration of his age and services, remitted the punishment, but ordered his name to be stricken from the rolls of the army.
Early in October, 1812, about three thousand five hundred men, under command of General Van Rensselaer, were assembled on the Niagara frontier. General Van Rensselaer resolved to make an attack on the British position at Queenstown, eight miles below Niagara Falls. At daybreak on the 13th of October, the troops began to embark to cross the river. The British opened a fire upon them, which was returned by the American batteries. Colonel Van Rensselaer, with about one hundred men, reached the shore, and stormed the fort of the British, though not without severe loss. The Americans drove the enemy from the field, and the victory was supposed to be gained, when another reinforcement arrived, and the conflict was renewed. At this critical moment, General Van Rensselaer crossed the river to bring a reinforcement for his gallant little band, and found that the militia would not obey his orders. Colonel Christie maintained the fight on the opposite shore, against overwhelming numbers, until seeing no hope of relief, he surrendered the remnant of his force. The Americans lost one thousand men in all, in this battle. The loss of the enemy was somewhat less, but their noble commander, the gallant Brock, was slain.
Fort Harrison was a post on the Wabash river, in the heart of the Indian country. It consisted of two blockhouses, stockade works, and a few buildings for stores or magazines. In September 1812, sixteen men, under the command of Captain Zachary Taylor, formed the garrison of this post. On the 3d of September, two men, who were working in the field near it, were murdered by the Indians, and on the night of the 4th, the savages set fire to one of the blockhouses, and commenced an assault. Captain Taylor, though suffering from sickness displayed the greatest coolness and resolution. Two of his men leaped over the stockade and fled, and the others were seized with a panic. But he restored their hopes, and by tearing off the roof of the barracks, and other means, succeeded in quenching the fire. The savages poured a steady fire into the fort. The invalids of the garrison returned it, and the conflict was fierce and desperate until daybreak, when the enemy retreated beyond the reach of the fort. They beleaguered the garrison, however, for twelve days, when a large body of troops arrived, and forced them to raise the siege.
At the commencement of the war, the navy of Great Britain was looked upon as invincible. But an important victory changed the opinion of the people of the United States. The frigate Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, sailed from Annapolis on the 25th of July, 1812, for New York. Falling in with a British fleet, she only escaped by great skill and seamanship. Soon after she sailed from Boston, and on the 19th of August encountered the British frigate, Guerriere, commanded by Captain Dacres. A fierce conflict of about half an hour’s length ensued. The Guerriere was reduced to a wreck, and after her surrender, burned. In this action the Americans had seven men killed, and seven wounded. The British loss was fifteen killed, sixty-two wounded, and twenty-four missing. The effect of this victory was to give the Americans confidence in the skill and bravery of their seamen.
The United States sloop-of-war Wasp, of eighteen guns, commanded by Captain Jacob Jones, sailed from the Delaware, on the 13th of October; and on the 18th of the month, after a long and heavy gale, fell in with a convoy of six merchantmen, four of them strongly armed, under the protection of His Britannic Majesty sloop-of-war Frolic, of twenty-two guns, Captain Whinyates. At half-past eleven in the morning, the action commenced at the distance of about fifty yards. But, during the action, so near did they come to each other, that the rammers of the Wasp’s cannon struck against the side of the Frolic. The fire of the English vessel soon slackened; and after a most sanguinary action of forty-three minutes, every brace of the Wasp being shot away, and the rigging so much torn, that Captain Jones resolved to board the enemy. With this view he wore ship and running down upon the enemy, the vessels struck. The officers surrendered the vessel, and the colors were hauled down by Lieutenant Biddle. The Frolic was in a shocking condition; the berth-deck was filled with dead and wounded. No sooner had the engagement ceased, than the British ship, Poictiers, of seventy four guns, came up, and captured both vessels.
General Dearborn, the commander of the United States forces on the Ontario frontier, having resolved to attack York, the capital of Upper Canada, embarked seventeen hundred troops, and left Sackett’s Harbor on the 25th of April. On the 27th, the troops, under the command of General Pike, effected a landing and drove a much superior force of the enemy from the shore. But they returned to the attack, and the contest was renewed. The enemy were again defeated and driven to their works. The whole force of the Americans having reached the shore, and being arranged in the order for attack, General Pike pressed forward, carried one of the enemy’s batteries, and was moving towards the main works, when a sudden and tremendous explosion of the magazine occurred, hurling upon the advancing troops immense masses of stone and timber, and for a time checking them by the havoc it made. General Pike was mortally wounded. But the troops under command of Colonel Pearce, pressed on, and captured the town, with all the land and naval forces in and about it. The total loss of the Americans was three hundred and twenty men. General Pike was greatly lamented. The British loss was four hundred killed or wounded, and three hundred prisoners.
After the capture of York, General Dearborn resolved to attempt the capture of Fort George. On the morning of the 27th of May, the light troops under Colonel Scott and Major Forsyth, supported by Colonel Porter’s light artillery and General Lewis’s division, crossed the Niagara river, and attacked the fort. Other brigades of troops followed. Commodore Chauncey had made judicious arrangements with his small ships, to silence the enemy’s batteries at the point of landing. The descent was warmly contested at the water’s edge, by the British; but they were soon compelled to give way, and the landing was completed. The American batteries soon succeeded in rendering the fort untenable. The British, retiring from the banks of the river, re-entered the fort, fired a few shot, set fire to the magazine, and then moved off in different directions. Of the British regular troops, ninety were killed, one hundred and sixty wounded, and one hundred captured. The Americans lost seventeen killed, and sixty wounded.
To retaliate for the capture of York, Sir George Prevost, the British general-in-chief, determined to make a descent on Sackett’s Harbor, the chief American depot for stores, on the lakes. Accordingly, on the 27th of May, 1813, Prevost, with nearly a thousand men, embarked in small boats, and proceeded, under convoy of the British fleet. The fleet being seen on the lake, preparations were made for the defence of the post. General Brown, with six hundred militia, came to the aid of the few regular troops, and made wise disposition for the reception of the enemy. Prevost arrived, and commenced the attack on the evening of the 28th. The first line of the militia fired, and then gave way. But Brown, with the rest of his troops, maintained his ground against the assault, and poured such a well aimed fire into the enemy, that they were checked. The success was followed up, and at length, the British were driven to their boats. Through some mistake the American stores were burned by the officer set to guard them. This victory brought the military talents of General Brown to light.
The defence of Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, was one of the most brilliant exploits in the annals of war. It was an unfinished stockade fort, garrisoned by one hundred and fifty men, under the command of Major George Croghan. General Harrison had sent word to the major, that he should abandon the fort on the approach of the enemy. But he did not think a retreat possible, and, moreover, was determined to perish, rather than surrender. On the 28th of May, Proctor, with twenty-two hundred British and Indians, appeared before the fort, and summoned the garrison to surrender. Receiving the most heroic refusal, he opened a heavy fire, which was continued during the night and all next day, when the enemy advanced to the assault. Croghan had but one six-pounder in the fort. This was masked, and other preparations made to receive the foe. The assault was furious, but the fire of the heroic garrison committed such havoc that the British were compelled to fall back in confusion, and soon after they abandoned the siege, having lost over two hundred men. Croghan’s loss was trifling.
Early in the spring of 1813, the attention of the government of the United States, was directed to the important object of obtaining the command of Lake Erie. The earnest representations of General Harrison had awakened the administration to a proper sense of the necessity of this measure. The British already had an efficient naval force upon the lake, and it gave them great advantages. Two brigs and several schooners were ordered to be built, under the direction of Captain Oliver H. Perry. That able and active officer saw that the work was carried on with the greatest rapidity, and on the 2d of August, he was able to sail in quest of the enemy’s squadron. The British, though much superior in force, did not venture out to meet the new squadron.
On the morning of the 10th of September, while Perry’s squadron was lying in Put-in-bay, in Bass Island, the enemy’s fleet was discovered standing out from the port of Malden, with the wind in their favor. The American fleet immediately weighed anchor, cleared the islands at the head of the lake, and was formed in line of battle. A little before twelve o’clock, the action commenced, the British having the weathergage. For some time, the fire of the enemy was concentrated upon the St. Lawrence, Perry’s flag-ship, and she was much cut up, most of her crew killed or wounded, and her guns disabled. In the midst of the lire, Captain Perry passed in an open boat from the Lawrence to the Niagara, and succeeded in bringing the rest of his fleet into action. A well directed fire was then opened upon the enemy, and the battle then became close and warm. At length the British vessels having suffered severely from the superior gunnery of the Americans, struck their colors. The Lawrence, whose flag had been hauled down soon after Perry had left her, had been enabled to hoist it before the end of the contest, the enemy not being able to take possession of her. The American loss was twenty-five killed, and ninety-six wounded; that of the enemy, forty-one killed, and ninety-five wounded.
As soon as General Harrison received the news of the triumph on Lake Erie, he hastened to put his army in motion to meet Proctor. Crossing the Lake, by means of Perry’s victorious squadron, he reached Malden, which the British and Indians had abandoned the day before. On the 2d of October, Harrison moved forward in pursuit of the enemy, and on the 5th, came up with them, at a strong position on the banks of the Thames. The Indians, under Tecumseh, were placed in a dense wood, while the British regulars were drawn up in open files, their flanks protected by the river and a morass. Colonel Johnson, with the mounted volunteers, was ordered to attack the Indians, while Harrison formed another battalion of the same troops, and ordered them to charge and break the line of regulars. This novel manœuvre was executed with complete success. The British force was compelled to surrender. The Indians maintained a desperate contest until the great Tecumseh was slain, when they broke and fled. This victory was decisive. Very few were killed and wounded on both sides, but the enemy were entirely captured or dispersed.
On the 5th of September, 1813, the United States brig Enterprize, of fourteen guns, commanded by Lieutenant Burrows, sailed from Portsmouth, and the next day fell in with the British brig, Boxer, of fourteen guns, commanded by Captain Blythe. The latter immediately fired a shot as a challenge, hoisted English colors, and bore down on the Enterprize. The American vessel manœuvered until she gained the weathergage, and then returned the fire. Obtaining a raking position, the Enterprize soon gained the advantage, and after an action of three quarters of an hour, compelled the British to cry for quarter. Their colors were nailed to the mast, but the firing ceased. Captain Blythe and Lieutenant Burrows were mortally wounded in the early part of the action. Burrows refused to be carried below until the sword of the enemy was presented to him, when he exclaimed, “I am now satisfied—I die contented.” The Boxer had twenty-five men killed, and fourteen wounded. The Enterprize had four men killed, and eleven wounded.
The battle of Lundy’s Lane was the best contested action of the war of 1812. On the afternoon of the 24th of July, 1814, General Brown received a notice that the British general had thrown a thousand men across the lake to Lewistown, nine miles below Chippewa. To divert them from what he supposed to be their object, the American general ordered General Winfield Scott, with his brigade of thirteen hundred men, to advance and threaten the forts at the mouth of the Niagara. Scott, advancing more than two miles, suddenly found himself in front of the whole British army, drawn up in Lundy’s Lane. Undaunted, he formed his line, and the struggle began. For two hours, the fiercest and the most desperate valor was displayed on both sides. Every attempt of the British to turn the flanks of the gallant band opposed to them failed. Their own left was turned and cut off, but their centre stood firm. Night came on, and the struggle was continued solely by the flashes of the guns. The American line had suffered much, but the remnants of the troops stood their ground with indomitable resolution. About ten o’clock the ammunition of the troops began to fail. But General Brown at length came up with strong reinforcements, and relieved the exhausted men. A more equal fight now ensued. Brown determined to carry the battery on the height at the head of the lane, that being the key of the enemy’s position. Riding up to Colonel Miller, he asked him if he would storm the height.
“I will try, sir!” was the heroic reply. Piloted by Scott, through the darkness to the foot of the ascent, Miller seized the guns almost instantaneously. Meanwhile General Ripley engaged the enemy, and was supported by the gallant Scott, who had two horses shot under him, and was wounded in the side, but kept the field until a wound in the shoulder brought him to the ground. General Brown was severely wounded, and, with Scott, taken from the field. The command now devolved on General Ripley. But the battle was nearly over. The British made one more charge, and were repulsed in disorder, and then the firing ceased. Ripley retired to the camp at Chippewa. In this bloody and well fought battle, the Americans lost eight hundred and sixty men, killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy was about one thousand men. One of their generals, Riall, was captured.
The British were very anxious to obtain the command of Lake Champlain, and the posts in the vicinity. The Americans had fitted out a small squadron on the lake, and placed it under the command of Commodore Macdonough. In 1814, a powerful British army advanced against Plattsburgh, and a British squadron, commanded by Captain Downie, sailed to meet the American squadron, then lying in Plattsburgh bay. Early on the morning of the 11th of September, the fleets met, and the battle commenced.
The Confiance, the flag-ship of the enemy, engaged the Saratoga, and the contest was maintained for about two hours, when the Confiance struck her colors. The chief vessel of the enemy being captured, the brig surrendered in a few minutes; two sloops had been captured some time before; three of the gallies were sunk, and the others escaped. The killed on board the American squadron amounted to fifty-two, the wounded to fifty-eight. Of the enemy, eighty-four were killed, including Captain Downie, the commander of the squadron, one hundred and ten wounded, and eight hundred and fifty-six remained prisoners, a number exceeding the whole amount of the Americans engaged.
The success of the attack on Washington encouraged the British general, Ross, to undertake an expedition against another city. Baltimore was the object of attack. The approach to that city by water was defended by Fort M’Henry, garrisoned by one thousand men, under Major Armistead; and by other temporary works. On the 11th of September, Admiral Cochrane appeared at the mouth of the Patapsco, with a squadron of fifty sail, and a strong body of British troops was landed at North Point, about fourteen miles below Baltimore. At sunrise, on the 13th, the bombardment of the fort commenced. The bomb vessels of the enemy were stationed about two miles from the fort, and were consequently beyond the reach of its guns. Though compelled to remain inactive, the troops in the fort were steadfast to their posts. The bursting of a shell within the southwest bastion creating some confusion, the ships of the enemy attempted to profit by it, but they were soon compelled to retreat to their former stations, where they continued a tremendous bombardment until the morning of the 14th. During the night, some barges and rocket vessels succeeded in passing the fort, but they were driven back with severe loss, by the fire from the smaller works.
In the latter part of 1814, information being received that the British intended to make a descent on Louisiana, General Jackson hastened to New Orleans, and made preparations for its defence. Every approach to the town was guarded by batteries and gunboats. The British fleet arrived early in December, and on the 14th, an attack was made upon the American gunboats on Lake Borgne. After a desperate contest, they submitted to a much superior force. The British having gained a position on the banks of the Mississippi, General Jackson, with two thousand men, marched down, on the evening of the 23d, and attacked them. After a hot fight, in which the enemy lost over two hundred men, the Americans fell back to their lines. Both armies having received large reinforcements, the British on the 8th of January, moved to the assault. The Americans drove them back in confusion. Sir Edward Packenham was killed. Again the enemy attempted to scale the work, and were again driven back. At length all the chief commanding officers being killed or disabled, the British retreated. Their loss in this battle was two hundred and ninety-three killed, twelve hundred and sixty-seven wounded, and four hundred and eighty-four prisoners. The American loss was only thirteen killed, and thirty-seven wounded.
The battle of New Orleans was the last great military event of the second war with Great Britain. In point of fact, it was fought after a treaty had been signed by the commissioners of Great Britain and the United States, assembled for the purpose at Ghent. This battle was of immense importance. It saved the city of New Orleans from capture and plunder. General Jackson’s services on this occasion, and his difficult and perilous campaign against the Creek Indians, raised his reputation to a very high point; and subsequently occasioned his elevation to the president’s chair.
After the conclusion of the treaty of Ghent, a squadron of the United States navy was sent to chastise the Barbary powers for attacking our commerce during the war with Great Britain. The Barbary powers concluded treaties without a struggle, and the country, except a few skirmishes with the Indians, remained at peace till the war with Mexico, of which we will now proceed to give some sketches.
In the course of the year 1845, the government of the United States ordered General Taylor, with about three thousand men, to take possession of the country lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, which country was the subject of dispute between the governments of Mexico and Texas. General Taylor reached the Rio Grande, in April, 1846. Now, the Mexican government looked upon this movement as a trespass upon their territory, and therefore declared war. Leaving a small force to occupy Fort Polk, opposite Matamoras, General Taylor, with the main body of his army, marched to Point Isabel, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Soon after, he heard that the Mexicans had commenced to bombard Fort Polk, and that General Arista, with a large body of troops, had crossed the river. There was great difference in the strength of the two armies, but General Taylor was a very determined man, and he said he would go and relieve Fort Polk, and fight whoever opposed him. He started on the morning of the 7th of May, and about two o’clock the next day, encountered the Mexicans at Palo Alto. A dreadful battle was then fought. The Mexicans were much more numerous than the Americans, but the Americans were braver soldiers, and they had some fine guns, which could be quickly moved to any part of the field. While conducting the movement of these guns, Major Ringgold, a very brave and skilful officer, was shot through both thighs and fell to the ground. To add to his sufferings, his horse fell on him. He was taken off the field, and died, after enduring great pains for two or three days. The battle was chiefly fought with the artillery. But at one time, about one thousand Mexican lancers moved forward to attack the Americans. This splendid looking body of cavalry, however, was driven back by the dreadful fire from the American guns, and the whole Mexican army retreated. General Taylor and his brave soldiers slept upon the field of battle.