Volume Ii Part 4 (1/2)
General Izard, who was to fall on his rear, did not reach Lewistown till the 5th of October. [Sidenote: Oct. 14.] At length, forming a junction with Brown's troops, he moved forward, and sat down before Drummond encamped, behind the Chippewa. His army, six thousand strong, was deemed sufficiently large to capture the enemy, and this event was confidently expected to crown the Canadian campaign. [Sidenote: Oct.
21.] But after some faint demonstrations, not worth recording, he seven days after retired to Black Rock, preparatory to winter quarters. Although pressed by the Secretary of War to attack the enemy, he declined, and having spent the summer in grumbling, went sullenly into winter quarters, thus closing the list of inefficient commanders, which threatened for awhile never to become complete.
While Izard was thus ending a military career in which he had gathered no laurels, Macomb, whom he had left at Plattsburgh, doomed as he said to destruction, had crowned himself with honor, and shed l.u.s.tre on the American arms.
CHAPTER VI.
British plan of invading our sea ports -- Arrival of reinforcements -- Barney's flotilla -- Landing of the enemy under Ross -- Doubt and alarm of the inhabitants -- Advance of the British -- Destruction of the Navy Yard -- Battle of Bladensburg -- Flight of the President and his Cabinet -- Burning and sacking of Was.h.i.+ngton -- Mrs. Madison's conduct during the day and night -- c.o.c.kburn's brutality -- Sudden explosion -- A hurricane -- Flight of the British -- State of the army -- Character of this outrage -- Rejoicings in England -- Mortification of our amba.s.sadors at Ghent -- Mistake of the English -- Parker's expedition -- Colonel Reed's defence -- The English army advance on Baltimore -- Death of Ross -- Bombardment of Fort McHenry -- ”The star spangled banner” -- Retreat of the British, and joy of the citizens of Baltimore.
But while these events were pa.s.sing around Niagara--in the interval between the a.s.sault on Fort Erie by Drummond and the successful sortie of Brown--a calamity overtook the country, which fortunately resulted in producing more harmony of feeling among the people, and strengthened materially the administration. Was.h.i.+ngton was taken and sacked by the enemy. The overthrow of Napoleon and his banishment to Elba, enabled England to send over more than 30,000 troops, which were soon on our sea-board or in the British Provinces. New England no longer remained excluded from the blockade, and the whole Atlantic sea-board was locked up by British cruisers. The Const.i.tution, the year previous, after a cruise in which she captured but a single war schooner and a few merchantmen, was chased into Marble Head, from whence she escaped to Boston. The blockading of our other large s.h.i.+ps, and the destruction of the Ess.e.x about the same time in the Bay of Valparaiso, had left us without a frigate at sea. The Adams, a sloop of twenty-eight guns, was the largest cruiser we had afloat.
Hitherto the enemy had been content with blockading our seaports, and making descents on small towns in their neighborhood, but as the summer advanced, rumors arrived of the preparation of a large force, destined to strike a heavy blow at some of our most important cities.
To meet this new danger the President addressed a circular letter to the States, calling on them to hold in readiness 93,500 militia.
Fearing that Was.h.i.+ngton or Baltimore might be the points at which the enemy would first strike, the tenth military district was erected, as mentioned before, and General Winder, recently released by exchange, given the command of it.
The whole sea-board was in a state of alarm--even Ma.s.sachusetts caught the infection, and preparations were immediately made to defend her seaports and protect her coast. The militia of the different States were called out--Governor Barbour, of Virginia, garrisoned Norfolk, the intrenching tools were busy night and day around Baltimore, Providence voted money for fortifications, Portland s.h.i.+pmasters formed themselves into a company of sea fencibles, and gun-boats were collected in New York and all the great northern ports. The notes of alarm and preparation rang along the coast from Maine to Louisiana, and before the mysterious shadow of the gigantic coming evil, party animosities sunk into insignificance. Released from her Continental struggle, England, with her fleets that had conquered at Aboukir, Trafalgar, and Copenhagen, and her troops fresh from the fields of Spain, had resolved to fall upon us in her power, and crus.h.i.+ng city after city, leave us at length without a seaport, from the Merrimack to the Mississippi. Even the brilliant victories of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane could not dispel the terror inspired by this gathering of her energies.
But the first serious demonstration was made in the Chesapeake. To act against the fleet a flotilla was placed there under the charge of Captain Barney, a bold and skillful officer. Constantly on the alert, he would dash suddenly out of the Patuxent River, and roughly handling the light vessels of the enemy that approached the shallow waters, compel them to take refuge under the guns of the frigates. But the river at length became blockaded, and the flotilla was compelled to run up into Leonard's Creek. From the 1st to the 26th of June, frequent skirmishes took place, in which Captain Barney exhibited a daring, skill and prudence combined, which proved him to be an able commander. On the 26th he attacked the British vessels in the river, and after a sharp cannonade of two hours, drove them into the bay, and broke up the blockade.
[Sidenote: Aug. 14.]
At length Admiral Cochrane arrived from Bermuda, in an eighty gun s.h.i.+p, bringing with him three thousand troops, commanded by General Ross. Entering the Chesapeake he joined Rear Admiral c.o.c.kburn, who by this timely reinforcement found himself in command of twenty-three vessels of war. This imposing fleet stood slowly up the waters of the Chesapeake, sending consternation among the inhabitants of Was.h.i.+ngton and Baltimore. [Sidenote: Aug. 21.] c.o.c.kburn, designed by nature for a freebooter, was admirably fitted for the work he had designed to do.
Landing four thousand five hundred troops at Benedict, he began to advance up the Potomac. Barney, acting under instructions he had received, immediately took four hundred men and fell back to the Wood Yard, where he joined what was called the army. He had left five or six men in each boat, to blow them up, should the enemy advance. That night, about one o'clock, the President, with the Secretaries of War and Navy, visited Winder's camp, and next morning reviewed the troops.
The camp was in confusion. Citizens and soldiers intermingled--each giving his opinion of the course to be pursued--disordered ranks and loud and fierce talking--the utter absence of the quiet demeanor and military precision characteristic of a regular army, gave to the one a.s.sembled there the appearance of a motley crowd on a gala day.
General Smith and Barney, however, seemed to understand themselves, and were anxious to advance and attack the enemy.
At the first appearance of the fleet Winder had sent off for the militia, but none had yet arrived. Six hundred from Virginia were reported close at hand--fourteen hundred from near Baltimore had reached Bladensburg, whither, also, was marching a picked regiment from the city itself, led by Pinckney, recently our Emba.s.sador to England. The whole country was filled with excited men, hurrying on foot or on horseback from one army and place to another--some without arms and others in citizens' dress, with only swords or pistols. The President and Cabinet were also in the saddle, riding by night and day, yet all without definite object. Rumor had swelled the invading force to twelve thousand men, but whether its destination was Was.h.i.+ngton, Baltimore, or Annapolis, no one could tell.
While affairs were in this excited, disorderly state around Was.h.i.+ngton, great uncertainty reigned in the British camp. It was a hot day when the troops landed, and the sight of neat farm-houses, rich fields, and green pastures, seemed to increase the la.s.situde occasioned by their long confinement on s.h.i.+p-board, rather than invigorate them, and it required the exercise of rigid authority and unceasing care to keep them from straggling away to the cool shelter of trees. Weighed down with their knapsacks and three days'
provisions, and sixty rounds of ball cartridge--without cavalry, and with only one six-pounder and two three-pounders drawn by a hundred seamen, this army of invasion took up its slow and cautious march inland on Sunday afternoon, and reached Nottingham that night.
[Sidenote: Aug. 21.] They found the village wholly deserted--not a soul was left behind, while the bread remaining in the ovens, the furniture standing just as it had last been used, showed that the flight had been sudden and the panic complete.
At this time the object of the expedition was the destruction of Barney's flotilla, which had so hara.s.sed and injured the lighter vessels of the fleet.
Next morning at eight o'clock the army took up its line of March, and soon entered a cool, refres.h.i.+ng forest. But they had traversed scarce half its extent, when Ross was filled with anxiety and alarm by frequent and loud explosions, like the booming of heavy artillery, in the distance. Officers were immediately hurried off to ascertain the cause, who soon returned with the welcome and unexpected intelligence that the Americans were blowing up their own flotilla.
The first and chief object of the invasion being secured, Ross halted his column at Marlborough, only ten miles from Nottingham, and sent for c.o.c.kburn, who, with a flotilla, was advancing up the river ”_pari pa.s.su_,” to advise with him what course to pursue. The admiral proposed to march on Was.h.i.+ngton. To this Ross at first objected, for to pierce a country of which he was ignorant fifty miles, with no cavalry or heavy artillery, seemed a rash undertaking, especially when, in a military point of view, success would accomplish comparatively nothing. c.o.c.kburn, however, who had been on the coast longer, and through informants residing in the city, had become acquainted with its defenceless state, persuaded him that its capture would be easy, and the results glorious. The taking of a nation's capital certainly seemed no mean exploit, while the heavy ransom the government would doubtless pay to save its public buildings, would compensate c.o.c.kburn for lack of prize money at sea.
It was not, however, till next noon that the army, preceded by a company of a hundred blacks, composed of fugitive slaves, began to advance. After making a few miles, it halted for the night.
The Secretary of War had insisted from the first that Was.h.i.+ngton was not the point threatened, and still adhered to that opinion. He could not conceive that an experienced commander would select as the first object of attack a town of some nine hundred houses, scattered over a surface of three miles, and dest.i.tute of wealth, while the opulent cities of Baltimore and Annapolis lay so near. This, too, was the opinion of many others, creating great confusion, and preventing the selection of strong positions, where successful stands could have been made.
While the British were thus slowly advancing, General Winder was riding hither and thither, now making a reconnoissance in person, now posting to Was.h.i.+ngton to rouse the Secretary of War out of his lethargy, or hurrying on foot back again to his army, doing every thing but restoring tranquillity and order. Confusion in the camp--disorder in the ranks--consternation among the inhabitants, and gloom and doubt in the cabinet, combined to render the three days the British were marching on Was.h.i.+ngton, a scene of extraordinary excitement and misdirected efforts.
[Sidenote: Aug. 24.]
At length, videttes and scouts, coming in quick succession, announced that the British army was approaching Bladensburg, where General Stansbury, with the Baltimore militia, was encamped. There was not a breath of air, and the column staggered on through a cloud of dust, and under a sweltering August sun. The soldiers, exhausted, reeled from the ranks and fell by the road side, while many others could scarcely drag their weary limbs along. The American troops were busy cooking their dinner when the drums beat to arms, announcing the approach of this much dreaded army.
When the news reached Winder, he immediately transmitted an order to Stansbury to give battle where he was, and hastened thither with the main army, arriving just before the action commenced. Barney, who had been stationed with five hundred men at the bridge over the eastern branch of the Potomac, with directions to blow it up should the enemy approach by that route, no sooner heard of his advance on Bladensburg, than he earnestly requested to repair thither with his brave seamen.