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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 718: AMERICAN CAMPAIGN.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

AMERICAN CAMPAIGN.

In the midst of the important affairs on the continent, the events of the war with the United States scarcely attracted public attention. These events were various, though unimportant. In the month of January the Americans collected a large force in the back settlements, and again approached Detroit, when Colonel Proctor routed their advanced guard, and captured five hundred men, with their commander, General Winchester. In April, the American general, Dearborn, took possession of York, at the head of the Lake Ontario, from whence General Sheaffe and the garrison was compelled to retire. About the same time, also, General Vincent was obliged by superiority of numbers to vacate Fort St. George, on the Niagara frontier, and on the 5th of June he compelled the enemy to fall back again on Niagara; but soon after Colonel Proctor was attacked by the American General, Harrison, with 10,000 men, who captured nearly the whole of his force, he himself escaping with a few attendants. Towards the end of October three American armies, each amounting to 10,000 men, marched from different points upon Lower Canada: but this great effort was frustrated by the vigilance of Sir George Prévost. During the autumn a squadron of six British vessels was captured by a superior American squadron, on Lake Erie, but on the whole the campaign was honourable to the British arms. When defeated, it was only by dint of overwhelming numbers. Between the “Shannon” and the “Chesapeak,” ships of superior force, there was a fierce battle in Boston Bay, which resulted in the capture of the American vessel, the “Chesapeak,” although she had in number and weight of guns, as well as in the number of its crew, a considerable superiority over the “Shannon.” After a fierce conflict of fifteen minutes’ duration, the “Chesapeak” was on its way with the conqueror, Captain Broke, to Halifax. In St. George’s Channel, also, an American sloop of war was captured by the British sloop, “Pelican.”