ered wise to attempt to propel a warship by steam, she was rigged as a schooner. On May 26 Macdonough entered the lake with his flagship Saratoga, twenty-six guns; the schooner Ticonderoga, sixteen guns; the sloop Preble, nine guns; and six gunboats, armed with two guns each. Afterward the fleet was augmented by the addition of the sloop President, ten guns; the sloop Montgomery, six guns; and five gunboats with one gun each. These gunboats were seventy-five feet long, fifteen feet wide, and could be rowed by forty oarsmen.

Proceeding to Plattsburg, where Macdonough arrived on May 29, he was requested to protect the transports which were removing troops and stores from Burlington to that place, General Izard having decided to encamp near the Canadian border. During the summer the American fleet guarded the mouth of the Richelieu to prevent the British ships from entering the lake. Admiral Mahan has said: "Macdonough's superiority during the three summer months gave the Americans unmolested use of the lake for the transport of troops,almost wholly militia,-of stores, and of all things available for the land defense of Plattsburg."

Fearing that Macdonough's squadron was sufficiently strong to give him the mastery of the lake, the British prepared in June to build a vessel at Isle aux Noix that at least should match the Saratoga and on August 25 the frigate Confiance, carrying thirty-seven guns, was launched.

Meanwhile the American fleet was strengthened by building another brig at Vergennes. The keel of the Eagle was laid on July 23, she was launched August 11,

and on August 27 she joined the American fleet anchored off Chazy. Her armament consisted of twenty guns. Former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles H. Darling, in writing of Macdonough's fleet, has said that "the Eagle was substantially of the same size as Perry's flagships Lawrence and Niagara on Lake Erie, while the Saratoga was much superior to Perry's largest vessel. The time in which Perry built his ships has often been mentioned in praise and wonder, but Macdonough's ships were not only of larger tonnage but were built and completed in a shorter time."

During the latter part of June the American army advanced from Plattsburg to Champlain and Chazy, N. Y., the British having concentrated their troops at Lacolle, Que., and other points near the line. Macdonough anchored his fleet in King's Bay, north of the mouth of Big Chazy River.

Lieut. Col. Benjamin Forsyth, called the best partisan leader in the American army, having led a scouting party across the boundary line, with the intention of drawing the enemy into an ambuscade, was shot by an Indian and killed. He was succeeded by Maj. Orsamus C. Merrill of Bennington, and Major Merrill's successor was Capt. Zachary Taylor, afterward one of the famous commanders of the Mexican War, and President of the Some Vermonters were engaged in United States.

the battles of Lundy's Lane and Fort Erie.

During the evening of August 16, 1814, Lieutenant Drury of the American Navy landed at Isle La Motte and proceeded to the inn of Caleb Hill, who was an Assistant Judge of Grand Isle County Court. The men

called for rum and supposing that they were part of a British detachment, Judge Hill and one of his sons armed themselves, levelled their pieces and demanded that the men surrender. Drury parried a gun with his sword, and several of the sailors fired at the Judge. One ball passed through his head and another through his body, killing him.

The military situation along the northern frontier, as the summer of 1814 drew to a close, was indeed a serious one. As a result of Napoleon's overthrow, it had been possible to send to Canada fifteen thousand troops, most of them Wellington's veterans. Lieut. Gen. Sir George Prevost now had under his command in Canada more than thirty thousand troops. All of these, with the exception of two thousand provincials, were regulars and veterans of the European wars. A British force of fourteen thousand men was concentrated at Isle aux Noix. The American force was greatly inferior, but in spite of this fact, the Secretary of War ordered General Izard to march four thousand troops to the Niagara frontier. Izard obeyed, like a good soldier; but he warned his chief that the enemy on his front was greatly superior to the American force, that an attack was hourly expected, and that everything in the vicinity of the Champlain frontier with the exception of the works at Plattsburg and Cumberland Head would be in the possession of the British troops in less than three days after his departure. General Izard withdrew from Champlain and Chazy on August 29 and on August 30 General Brisbane of the British army took possession of Champlain. To oppose an army of 14,000 of Wel