Many prosperous towns and trading posts were scattered along the Canadian sh.o.r.es. To capture some of these was the task given to the American army.
The campaign was opened by General William Hull. With two thousand men he crossed the Detroit River, and marched into Canada.
After a few skirmishes with the Indians, he fell back to the fort at Detroit. Then, without firing a single gun, he gave up this fort to the English. This surrender was a great loss to the Americans for many reasons.
There was, in the west, a bold Indian warrior whose name was Tec.u.mseh.
He had a brother whom the Indians called the Prophet, because he was a medicine man and could do wonderful things.
[Ill.u.s.tration: TEc.u.mSEH.]
These two Indians wished to form a union of all the tribes from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. They hoped that in this way they might prevent the white settlers from taking their hunting grounds.
"The white men are continually driving the red people toward the west; by and by we shall be driven into the Great Water," they said.
The governor-general of Canada made the Indians many promises, and tried to incite them against the United States. In this way he persuaded many warlike tribes to give aid to the English. Tec.u.mseh himself crossed into Canada and joined the British army under General Proctor.
After Hull"s surrender of Detroit, the British and Indians took possession not only of that fort, but also of Fort Dearborn, where Chicago now stands. The territory of Michigan was completely in their hands, and the settlers along the lakes and all through the northwest were at the mercy of the Indians.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.]
General William Henry Harrison tried to regain Detroit. His advance guard was met and defeated at the River Raisin, a few miles south of Detroit. Every American prisoner was murdered by the Indians; and for years afterward the River Raisin was a name of horror.
The Americans felt that something desperate must be done. The first great thing to be gained was the control of the lakes.
At this time nearly the whole of the western country was a wilderness.
The only way of moving men and supplies from place to place, was by the use of boats on the lakes and water courses.
On Lake Ontario a small fleet had been built, and a skirmish or two had been fought. But the thing of most importance was the control of Lake Erie. This would not only give back Detroit to the Americans, but would also be the means of recovering the whole of the Michigan territory.
The task of building a fleet and driving the English from the lakes was given to Lieutenant Perry.
At the beginning of the war he had left his quiet home in Newport, and had hurried to Washington to ask for active service.
He was promised the first vacancy, but in the meantime he was ordered to protect the harbors of Long Island Sound with a flotilla of gunboats.
During the year 1812 he performed this duty faithfully, all the while drilling his men, in hopes of being intrusted with a larger responsibility.
VIII.--OLIVER PERRY BUILDS A FLEET.
In February, 1813, Lieutenant Perry was ordered to go to Lake Erie. He was to take with him, from his gunboats, the men whom he thought best fitted for the service and report to Commodore Chauncey, who was in command of the squadron on Lake Ontario. The American headquarters, on that lake, were at Sacketts Harbor.
It was almost impossible to reach the place. From the Hudson River to the sh.o.r.es of Lake Ontario, was a vast wilderness. No road had been cut through it; none but Indians could follow the difficult trails.
The only route known to the white men was along the Mohawk River to Lake Oneida, then by the Oswego River to the little village of Oswego on Lake Ontario. To transport men and arms along this route was a great task, requiring much time, skill, and patience.
Oliver Perry was a man of action. On the very day that he received his orders, he started fifty men to Lake Ontario, and the next day fifty more.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
On February 22d, in the coldest part of winter, he left his home and his young wife in Newport, and with his brother Alexander, began the difficult journey towards the north.
Sometimes they traveled in rude sleighs over the roughest of roads.
Sometimes, when the river was not too full of ice, they embarked in canoes. At other times, they could only go on foot through the thick underbrush. On all sides was a vast wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and unfriendly Indians.
At Oswego, they embarked in boats and followed the sh.o.r.e of Lake Ontario to Sacketts Harbor. On one side of them was the dreary inland sea full of tossing white caps and overhung by the leaden sky of winter. On the other side lay the trackless forest.
To relieve their loneliness, they occasionally fired a musket. The echoes would roll along the sh.o.r.e, growing fainter and fainter. This only made the silence which followed seem greater than before.
A cold rain began to fall, and by the time they reached Sacketts Harbor they were drenched to the skin.
On March 16th, Lieutenant Perry set out for Lake Erie. Upon reaching the harbor at Erie he found that twenty-five ship carpenters had already begun work on three gunboats and two brigs. Fifty more carpenters had started four weeks before from Philadelphia, but had not yet arrived.
The task which lay before Oliver Perry seemed almost an impossible one.
Mechanics, seamen, guns, sailcloth,--everything needed for the ships must be brought hundreds of miles through a wild and half-settled country.
But by the end of the summer, a fleet, which seemed to have been built by magic, was ready to meet the English. Six months before, the timbers used in building the vessels had been growing trees; the iron that held these timbers together was either in the mines or in warehouses or farmers" barns, in the shape of plowshares, axes, or horseshoes.
The shipbuilders had come through the wilderness from Philadelphia. The guns, ammunition, and rigging had been brought in ox-wagons, hundreds of miles over almost impa.s.sable roads.
While Perry was building this fleet, a sad event had taken place on the sea. The British frigate _Shannon_ met and captured the American frigate _Chesapeake_, June 1, 1813, near Boston harbor.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTAIN JAMES LAWRENCE.]
Captain Lawrence of the _Chesapeake_ fought bravely, but, in the battle, was mortally wounded. As he was being carried below, his last words were: "Don"t give up the ship!"
The Secretary of the Navy sent word to Lieutenant Perry to name one of the vessels of his new fleet the _Lawrence_, after this gallant captain.
Lieutenant Perry therefore gave this name to his flagship.
By the 10th of July the fleet was ready for sea, but there were only officers and men enough to man one ship. Several of these were ill with fever.
Lieutenant Perry wrote many letters to General Harrison, Commodore Chauncey, and the Secretary of the Navy.
"Give me men, and I will acquire both for you and for myself honor and glory on this lake, or die in the attempt," he said.
By the end of July he had over four hundred men for his nine vessels.
But, as he said, they were a "motley crew" of regular soldiers, negroes, and raw recruits. During the battle which followed, over a hundred of these men were too sick to be of any use.
The English fleet of six vessels was commanded by Captain Barclay. In his crews were over five hundred men and boys.
IX.--"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS."
Early in August the American squadron left the harbor of Erie, and sailed to Put-in-Bay, an island not far from the west end of the lake.
The British squadron was in the harbor of Fort Malden, nearly opposite on the Canadian sh.o.r.e.
On the morning of September 10, 1813, from the masthead of the _Lawrence_, the English fleet was seen approaching.