render. To this fact and his neglect to inform Hull of his intentions are justly chargeable the chief cause of that general's disaster. It did more; it enabled Brock to bring his troops and prisoners to the Niagara frontier without molestation; and it so delayed preparations for war in New York, that on the first of September (1812) Van Rensselaer had at Lewiston only seven hundred men instead of five thousand, as he had been promised, though charged with the double duty of defending the frontier and invading Canada. At length regulars and militia arrived on the Niagara, and toward the middle of October, Van Rensselaer found himself in command of six thousand men, scattered along the river between Lewiston and Buffalo. He then resolved to invade Canada from Lewiston. The night of the 12th of October was intensely dark. A heavy storm was just ending. In the gloom at three o'clock the next morning, Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, in command of six hundred men, was on the shore of the river at Lewiston, prepared to cross the swift-running stream and storm the British works on Queenstown Heights. But only thirteen boats were there to take the troops over, and in these he passed with less than one-half his force. The enemy were on the alert, and had discovered the movements of the Americans; and when Van Rensselaer landed, they assailed his little force with musketry and a small field-piece. This assault was responded to by a battery on Lewiston Heights, when the British turned and fled toward Queenstown. They were followed by regulars, under Captain John E. Wool (the senior in command in the absence of LieutenantColonel Chrystie, who was in a boat that had lost its way in the darkness and did not arrive until between eight and nine o'clock), who pushed gallantly up the hill, pressed the British back to the plateau on which Queenstown stands, fought them there, and finally gained possession of Queenstown Heights. Van Rensselaer had followed with the militia, and was so severely wounded that he was compelled to relinquish the command and recross the river. A bullet had passed through the fleshy part of both of Wool's thighs, but, unmindful of his wounds, that gallant soldier would neither leave the field nor relinquish the command until the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Chrystie between eight and nine o'clock. General Brock was at Fort George, seven miles below Queenstown, when the firing began. He hastened to the scene of action, and with his staff pressed up the Heights to a redan battery, where they dismounted. They were suddenly startled by the crack of musketry. Wool and his followers were close upon them. Brock and his aides had not time to remount, but fled down the hill, leading their horses at full gallop and followed by the dozen men who manned the battery. In a few minutes the American flag CHAP. VIII. CONFLICT ON QUEENSTOWN HEIGHTS. 1217 was waving over that little work. Brock at once placed himself at the head of some troops to drive Wool from the Heights, and at first the Americans were pressed back by overwhelming numbers, to the verge of the precipice that rises from the deep chasm of the river two hundred feet below. That little band were in great peril, when Captain Ogilvie, seeing men falling around him and the danger of being hurled into the flood below, raised a white handkerchief on the point of a bayonet in token of surrender. Wool sprang forward, snatched the token of submission, addressed a few stirring words to his men, begging them to fight as long as they had a weapon, and then waving his sword, so inspirited his comrades to a renewal of the fight that they soon made the British veterans break, and flee down the hill in confusion. These were rallied by General Brock, and were about to reascend the Heights, when their commander was mortally wounded at the foot of the declivity. After a short struggle, the British retreated a mile below Queenstown. The young commander (Wool was only twenty-four years of age), after three distinct battles, was left master of the Heights with two hundred and forty men. Not long afterward, Brigadier-General Wadsworth, of the New York militia, took the chief command. General Sheaffe, who succeeded General Brock in command of the British, rallied the troops. Lieutenant-Colonel (afterward Major-General) Winfield Scott, had arrived at Lewiston, and crossing the river joined the troops as a volunteer. At the request of General Wadsworth, he took active command. Early in the afternoon a cloud of dusky warriors, led by John Brandt, painted and plumed, and with gleaming tomahawks, fell upon the pickets on the American left with great fury, uttering the horrid war-whoop. The militia were about to flee, when the towering form and trumpet-toned voice of Scott, commanded their attention. He inspired the troops, now about six hundred strong, militia and regulars, to fall upon the savage assailants with a shout. The Indians turned and fled to the woods in terror. Meanwhile General Sheaffe had pressed forward, when General Van Rensselaer, who stood by the side of Scott, hastened across the river to send over reinforcements of militia. About a thousand had gone over in the morning, but few had engaged in the fight. Others now refused to go, pleading, in the language of the opponents of the war, that they were not compelled to leave the soil of their country and invade that of another. The poltroons stood idly at Lewiston, while their comrades were mown down like grass at Queenstown. Overwhelming numbers compelled the Americans to surrender, when all the prisoners were marched to Newark. There Scott had an encounter with two Indian chiefs. He met them in a hall, and was unarmed. They demanded how many bullets had passed through his clothes, as they had both fired at him repeatedly. One of the Indians attempted to turn him round rudely, when Scott thrust him away, exclaiming: "Hands off! you shot like a squaw!" Both Indians drew their knives and tomahawks, and were about to spring upon Scott, when he snatched a sword standing at the end of the hall, drew the blade from the scabbard as quick as lightning, and was about to slay his assailants, when a British officer interfered and saved them. On that memorable day, the 13th of October, 1812, the Americans lost, in killed, wounded and prisoners, about eleven hundred men. General Van Rensselaer, disgusted with the inefficiency everywhere displayed, left the service, and was succeeded by General Alexander Smythe, of Virginia, who accomplished nothing of importance during the remainder of the season. The military situation of the Americans at the close of 1812, was this: The Army of the Northwest, as it had been named, first under Hull and then under General Harrison, was occupying a defensive position among the snows of the wilderness on the banks of the Maumee River; the Army of the Centre, under General Smythe, was resting on the defensive on the Niagara frontier; and the Army of the North, under General Bloomfield, was also resting on the defensive at Plattsburgh. CHAP. VIII. CONFLICTS ON THE SEA. 1219 While military failures gave the opponents of the administration reasons. for complaints and denunciations, the little American navy, so weak compared with that of the British, was winning honor for itself and the nation. Unmindful of this disparity, the Americans went boldly out upon the ocean in national and privately-armed vessels, and won victory after victory. When war was declared, Commodore Rodgers was off Sandy Hook, near New York, with a small squadron consisting of the frigates President, Congress, and United States, and the sloop-of-war Hornet. He put to sea two days after that declaration, in pursuit of a British squadron convoying the West India fleet of merchantmen to England. The President (Rodgers' flagship) overtook the British off Nantucket Shoals, on the 23d of June, and after a slight engagement with the Belvidera, and a chase of several hours, the pursuit was abandoned. The news of this affair, carried into Halifax by the Belvidera, produced a profound sensation there, and Rear-Admiral Sawyer sent out a squadron of war-vessels, under Captain Broke, to search for Rodgers and his frigate. Broke's flag-ship was the Shannon, 38. This squadron appeared near New York early in July, and captured the United States brig Nautilus, 14. This was the first vessel-of-war taken on either side in this contest. The frigate Constitution (yet afloat), of 44-guns, commanded by Captain. Isaac Hull, had just returned from foreign service when war was declared, and on the 12th of July she sailed from Annapolis on a cruise to the northward. On the 17th she fell in with Broke's squadron, when one of the most remarkable naval retreats and pursuits on record occurred. The Constitution was not strong enough to fight the squadron, with a hope of winning; and her safety depended upon her celerity in flight. There was almost a dead calm, and her sails flapped lazily in a zephyr-like breeze, as she floated almost independently of the helm on the slowly undulating bosom of the sea. Down went her boats with sweeps and manned by strong oarsmen. A long 18-pounder was rigged as a stern-chaser, and another of the same calibre was pointed off the forecastle. Out of her cabin-windows, where saws had made them large enough, two 24-pounders were run, and all the light cannon that would draw was set. She was just getting under headway with a gentle northwest breeze that sprung up, when the Shannon assailed her with shot at long range without effect. Calm and breeze succeeded each other, and sweeps and sails alternately kept the good ship moving in a manner that puzzled the pursuers. At length the British discovered the secret power that bore the Constitution before them, and instantly boats with sweeps and strong men were urging onward the Shannon, which then slowly gained on her intended victim. The Guerriere, 38, Captain Dacres, another of the squadron, had joined in the chase. All day and all night the pursuit continued; and at dawn of the second day of the chase the whole British squadron were in sight, bent on capturing the American frigate. The five vessels were clouded with canvas, while expert seamanship caused the Constitution to make the space between her and her pursuers so wide that not a gun was fired. That afternoon she was four miles ahead of the Belvidera, the nearest vessel of the squadron; and at sunset a heavy squall burst in fury on the Constitution, but she was prepared for it. Wind, lightning, and rain made a terrible commotion on the sea, for a short time; but the gallant ship outrode the tempest, and at twilight she was flying before her pursuers at the rate of eleven knots an hour. At midnight the British fired two guns, and at dawn they gave up the chase, which had lasted sixty-four hours. The country rang with praises of Hull and the Constitution; and a bard of the day, singing of her exploits, said: "Neath Hull's command, with a tough hand, Upon a day, as log-books say, A fleet bore down to whack her. "A fleet, you know, is odds, or so, |