Chapter V: Part 5

The American army heretofore had been looked upon by the British as vacillating and dilatory, and therefore such firmness and vigor, accompanied by such offensive movements, were entirely unexpected, and may in some measure account for such signal success. It had been said that the “British bayonet was irresistible;” but on the Niagara, the tide of victory was turned by that very weapon on which lay their invincibility. At the close of the war, General Brown was retained in the army, and took up his residence at Washington; but he never recovered from the severe wounds received at Fort Erie. His health gradually declining, he died at his residence at Washington, 24th February, 1828.

By a resolve of Congress, November 3, 1814, a gold medal was struck and presented to General Brown, for his brilliant achievements in the battles of Chippewa, Niagara and Erie.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL PRESENTED TO GENERAL BROWN.

(_See_ Plate VI.)

DEVICE.--A bust of General Brown.

LEGEND.--Major-General Jacob Brown.

REVERSE.--The Roman fasces, as indicative of the union and strength of the states; the top encircled with a laurel wreath, from which are suspended three tablets, bearing the inscriptions Erie, Niagara, Chippewa; and encircled by three stands of British colors, its wings outspread.

LEGEND.--Resolution of Congress, Nov. 3, 1814.

EXERGUE.--Battles of Chippewa, July 5th, 1814; Niagara, July 25th, 1814; Erie, Sept. 17, 1814.

MAJOR-GEN. RIPLEY.

Eleazer Wheelock Ripley was born in Hanover, in New Hampshire, in the year 1782. His father, the Reverend Sylvanus Ripley, was professor of divinity of Dartmouth College; his maternal grandfather was the Reverend Eleazer Wheelock, founder of the institution of which his father was professor, and the son a graduate. By the same side he was lineally descended from the celebrated Miles Standish, the Scanderberg of his day, whose memory is justly cherished as the early protector of the Plymouth colony. The Reverend Mr. Ripley dying early in life, left a large family under the care of his widow, to whose virtuous and devoted attention may be ascribed the future success of her offspring, particularly that of the subject of this memoir, then at the tender age of five years. At the age of fourteen, Eleazer was admitted to Dartmouth college, from which institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in the year 1800, being only in the eighteenth year of his age. His course, while an under graduate, had been distinguished, and at the time of graduation he received the highest honors of the college. After leaving college, he commenced the study of the law in the town of Waterville, Massachusetts.

In this memoir we can only give slight traces of his early life, but infer from the information of historians, that he gave early presages in youth of what has since been realized in manhood. He was assiduous and successful in his studies, and exemplary in his life and conduct; and the early eminence attained by Mr. Ripley in his profession, tested the assiduity with which he had devoted himself to the study of it. In the year 1807, he was elected to the legislature of Massachusetts, from the town of Winslow, in that state. At the period when the nation first felt the effect of the offensive edicts of the two great belligerent powers of Europe, Mr. Ripley’s political character strongly developed itself. He was aware that the insults and aggressions of France would lead to a war, for which just cause had been given, provided the equal avidity and greater means of annoyance of Great Britain did not make that country the mark of an equally just enmity.

When, in the year 1808, their combined hostility became more apparent and oppressive, he conceived that was the moment for a declaration of war, for which the country would never be better prepared, a crisis which sooner or later must come.

In 1811, Mr. Ripley was elected to the chair of the speaker of the house of Representatives of Massachusetts, vacated by the late Hon. Joseph Story; over which he presided with distinguished ability and impartiality.

In 1812, he declared for the necessity of a war, and was induced to assume an active duty in it, by accepting a lieutenant-colonelcy in the army of the United States. On leaving his civil and legislative duties, Colonel Ripley was entrusted by the commander-in-chief with the charge of a sub-district, from Saco to the eastern frontier, with orders to place the same in the best posture of defence. To this was added the superintendence of the recruiting service, which in a short time embodied his recruits into a regiment, called the twenty-first, of which he had the sole command.

With this regiment he marched to Plattsburgh, on the northern frontier, where an army under the command of the late General Pike was encamped.

The winter of 1812 he spent with his regiment at Burlington, Vermont, where he commenced that school of discipline and police which led his regiment to its subsequent fame, and made it the model of the army. In March, 1813, Colonel Ripley left his winter quarters for Sacket’s Harbor, to join General Pike’s brigade, and prepare for the attack on York, Upper Canada. On the 23d of April, the troops embarked on that enterprise, and on the morning of the 27th, arrived before the town which was the object of it. The immediate command of the assault was entrusted to General Pike. On entering the bay of York the ships were severely cannonaded by the forts defending the harbor, while they in turn covered with their guns a large portion of the beach, on which it was intended that the troops should form. On the debarkation of a body of riflemen under Major Forsyth, the enemy fled to the woods, giving time for the main body to form on the beach, and move in close column to the attack of the principal fort. The troops thronged into the works, when the awful explosion of the magazine took place, which annihilated the leading columns, and mortally wounded their gallant commander General Pike. During the confusion, the enemy called in his detached parties, and concentrated his force in the town. Colonel Ripley, who also had been wounded in the explosion, soon collected his scattered army and prepared to charge the enemy, who made a precipitate retreat, leaving an immense quantity of artillery and stores, some few prisoners, and the town to make its own conditions. A surrender was made, and Colonel Ripley’s regiment was stationed to guard the property of the citizens from depredation. On the 30th, the army re-embarked for the assault of Fort George; but a long and severe storm detained and prevented its reaching its destination until the 27th of May, when Fort George was assaulted and taken. On the 3d of June, Colonel Ripley having been ordered to return to Sacket’s Harbor to organize the large body of recruits collected during the winter, reached that place on the 11th instant, where he was detained by severe indisposition, until the 15th of July; from that time until October the regiment was employed in an incessant course of instruction; the drill, general discipline, and police, were carried to their highest perfection, which produced the most successful results. In November following, Colonel Ripley and the 21st regiment played a conspicuous part in the descent of the St. Lawrence; after which they retired again to their winter quarters at Sacket’s Harbor. In the spring of 1814, the army was put in motion for the Niagara frontier. On the 15th of April, Colonel Ripley was created brigadier-general, and early took his leave of the corps of his own training, the 21st regiment. The command of General Ripley was not augmented by his increased rank. The division of the army under General Brown consisted of two brigades, of which General Scott commanded the first, General Ripley the second. From the 4th of May until the 3d of July, the army pursued its usual routine of instruction, when it commenced the passage of the Niagara, and invaded the province of Upper Canada. On the morning of the 5th, General Brown detached a portion of General Porter’s volunteers to drive back a body of the enemy’s light troops and Indians that infested a wood on the left wing of the army. About mid-day Generals Brown and Ripley advanced to ascertain the effect of this attempt, when it was observed that the firing, which had been irregular and receding, from the circumstance of the enemy’s having been driven back, changed into a regular heavy platoon discharge. This discovery made it necessary for Generals Ripley and Scott to join them; they had scarcely advanced when the enemy appeared in line, and the brilliant action ensued, so well known, and so justly celebrated, which caused the enemy to retire in such rapid and confused precipitation across the Chippewa, that no attempt to impede his flight could prove effectual. Everything that could not be moved in haste was abandoned, and the enemy retreating into his entrenchments, left the American army undisturbed possession of the ground in front of them. From this until the 24th the army were in frequent skirmishes with the enemy. As the succeeding day produced the most memorable battle during the war, there are circumstances which require a somewhat minute relation, and which are given on these pages from the concurring testimony of the most distinguished officers present. During the course of the 25th, a piquet stationed beyond the Chippewa, reported the advance of a small party of the enemy on the Niagara road, and that several columns had been thrown across the river to Lewistown, to proceed towards Schlosser, to seize on our wounded and baggage. General Scott, in order to draw them back, made a demonstrative movement toward Queenstown. About two hours after its departure a fire of musketry was heard, on which General Ripley immediately formed his brigade, to be in readiness for an emergency of which he had not been apprised; scarcely was it ranged, when the increased fire of musketry, accompanied by heavy discharges of artillery, announced the unexpected certainty of General Scott’s being engaged. Shortly afterwards an order arrived from General Brown, directing him to advance.

The enemy was posted on an eminence, his artillery in the centre, and from it, and a long line of infantry, poured on the first brigade an annihilating fire: that brigade had held position in direct front of the enemy, less than one hundred yards distance; the action had continued nearly two hours, during which an attempt to turn our left had been repulsed, but no advance had been made on the enemy’s line, which, from its superior position, beyond the reach of material annoyance from our artillery, kept up so deadly a fire that the first brigade was fast sinking under the effect of it. The 25th regiment line of brigade, under the command of Major, now General Jessup, being thrown on the enemy’s right flank, captured General Riall, and performed other acts of heroism reflecting the most unfading honor on its gallant commander. At the same instant he formed the 21st regiment under the command of the brave Colonel now General Miller, to attack the cannon in direct line in front, and to push both the 21st and 23d regiments upon the enemy. The two bodies struck the enemy’s line at nearly the same moment, the 21st falling immediately upon the cannon, the 23d on the infantry supporting it. At this moment of confusion it is scarcely possible to do justice to many individuals most honorably engaged. Colonel Miller, to whom the sole charge of the attack in front was entrusted, evinced that unconquerable gallantry which is identified by but one spirit, and that of the noblest sort. As the enemy was now advancing under cover of the darkness, General Ripley gave orders that the fire should be retained until that of the assailants was received, in order that ours might be made more effective by being directed by the light of his. In a few moments he advanced to within a distance of ten or twelve paces, and, from a line far outflanking ours, poured in one continued blaze of musketry; this was promptly answered by our troops, and at this short distance, a tremendous conflict commenced: for the space of twenty minutes an incessant gleam of light was emitted from both lines; sections mutually recoiled where the severity of the fire was most excessive; those on our side were inspirited and brought again to the charge by the personal exertion of General Ripley, and such a vigor infused in their resistance, that the enemy was forced back in confusion, and fell to the bottom of the hill. During the short period that intervened between this charge and a subsequent repetition of it, the first brigade was forming itself in the rear of the second, and at the moment when the two lines were in their second encounter, General Scott passed his corps through an opening in the one before it, to throw himself upon the enemy then engaged in a vigorous discharge of musketry. From this point he again advanced to the attack of the enemy’s right flank, but being compelled to fall back, he left his brigade on the left and pushed along the line to the extreme right. The enemy’s second charge being repulsed, General Ripley still retained his position on the eminence. It was now midnight, and the enemy being reinforced, advanced to his third and most vigorous effort. The same deadly assault was made, which in like manner was frustrated and forced back. This was a perfect skirmish; the enemy mingled himself with our ranks; two of our guns were spiked, and the utmost confusion prevailed in every direction; but by the firmness and bravery of the 21st regiment and its gallant officers, the line was preserved, and the enemy again, and for the last time, recoiled from it in confusion and dismay; leaving the line under General Ripley master of the field. The darkness was now impenetrable, and although the field, on which were strewed our dead and wounded, was ours, an enemy of superior force was on its borders, and of the measures which his late discomfiture might induce him to adopt we were necessarily ignorant. Under these circumstances General Ripley condensed the remnant of our shattered force and marched toward Chippewa. Such was the memorable battle of Niagara; although the conquest was ours, one-third of our slender force engaged in it were now wounded or dead. Some time after midnight the army arrived at its encampment, when General Ripley waited on General Brown, then wounded, in his tent. General Brown requested that General Ripley should refresh the troops, of which the whole command now rested with him, march them in the morning to the battle-field, and if the enemy appeared there in force, to be governed entirely by circumstances.

At daybreak the army was arranged, and the march commenced, when they found the enemy had been reinforced since the battle of the preceding evening, and that it would be an act of madness to attack an enemy thus increased, with two-thirds only of the force in the previous conflict. The army consequently retrograded across the Chippewa, the bridge of which they destroyed, and likewise everything that might aid the enemy’s advance.

They reached Fort Erie on the 27th of July, and commenced a course of labors that would now be deemed beyond the reach of accomplishment. The redoubts, abattis, traverses and entrenchments were instantly commenced, and the ability of an army in patience, vigor and hardihood, was never more fully elicited; nor can any monument of military exertion show a greater amount of labor accomplished in a shorter period, than can the works of Fort Erie from the 27th of July until the 3d of August. The impediments given to the advance of the enemy by General Ripley, had retarded his approach until that day. By one or two days of previous advance, he might have found the American army unintrenched and exposed; he now found it in a situation to defy him.

He arrived and planted his main camp about two miles distant, and in front of it a line of circumvallation extending around our fortifications; it consisted of two lines of entrenchment supported by block-houses; in front of these, and at favorable points, batteries, from which an incessant and destructive fire was poured on our encampment.

On the 14th of August, about midnight, General Ripley perceived indications of an attack, which he had been for some time anticipating; accordingly, about one o’clock on the morning of the 15th, the firing of the piquet confirmed General Ripley’s impressions.

Lieutenant Belknap, who commanded the piquet, perceiving the enemy’s column approach through the darkness, fired and retreated to the works. The assailants were allowed to approach near to the works, when the fire from the 21st and 23d regiments, and the incessant blaze of the battery, drove them back in confusion, without the enemy having made the least impression.

The charge was again renewed on the abattis between the battery and the lake, which was again and in the same manner frustrated. A third and last attempt was made to pass the point of the abattis, by wading into the work by the lake. Like the other attempts, this also was defeated, and the part of the enemy which survived the destruction to which it had been exposed, fell back in confusion from the works. Throughout these several and varied attacks from a force so overwhelming, the second brigade evinced its accustomed discipline, and its officers the high and gallant spirit they held in common with their leader. Reinforcements were detached to different points, changes of position made, new shapes of the enemy’s attack on the right, a part deemed the least vulnerable, were found more effectual. He had succeeded in making a lodgement in the bastion, which was left to the defence of artillery only, unsupported by infantry, as had been the previous custom. From this, however, he was soon dislodged, and after a dreadful repulse, all became as tranquil on the right as it had previously become on the left. When morning appeared, the flower of the British army lay dead or wounded before the American works. The commanders of the three assailing columns shared the same fate, and of the force which the last night thronged toward the fortification, the miserable remains of the greater part never returned from it.

The only prisoners taken during the night, were made by a sally ordered by General Ripley. His position was deemed the least of any part of the force engaged, while he inflicted on the enemy the greatest. The enemy now commenced with batteries in every direction. Hot shot, shells and other destructive implements were showered in vast profusion; every house, tent and hut were perforated, and many of our best soldiers destroyed. This warfare was kept up at intervals, by daily skirmishes, until the 17th of September, the day allotted for the sortie which terminated the siege; when the besiegers yielded to the besieged, and a force regular and irregular, of two thousand men, drove the enemy from his entrenchments, beat and scattered a regular enemy of four thousand men.

Extract of an official letter to the secretary of war, after the sortie of Fort Erie:--“On the morning of the 17th, General Miller was directed to station his command in the ravine, which lies between Fort Erie and the enemy’s batteries, by passing them by detachments through the skirts of the wood; and the 21st infantry, under General Ripley, was posted as a corps of reserve, between the new bastions of Fort Erie, all under cover and out of the view of the enemy. About twenty minutes before three, P. M., the left columns, under the command of General Porter, which were destined to turn the enemy’s right, were within a few rods of the British entrenchments. They were ordered to advance and commence the action. Passing down the ravine, it was judged from the report of musketry, that the action had commenced on our left; orders were given to General Miller to seize the moment and pierce the enemy’s entrenchment, between batteries No. 2 and 3, which orders were promptly and ably executed. Within thirty minutes after the first gun was fired, batteries No. 2 and 3, the enemy’s line of entrenchments, and his two block-houses were in our possession. Soon after, battery No. 1 was abandoned by the British. The guns in each were spiked by us, or otherwise destroyed, and the magazine of No. 3 was blown up. A few minutes before the explosion, the reserve, under General Ripley, was ordered up; as he passed, at the head of his column, he was desired he would have a care that not more of the troops were hazarded than the occasion of the sortie required. General Ripley passed rapidly on.

“Soon after fears were entertained for the safety of General Miller, and an order sent for the 21st to hasten to his support, towards battery No. 1. Colonel Upham received the order and advanced to the aid of General Miller. General Ripley had inclined to the left, and while making some necessary inquiries was unfortunately wounded in the neck, severely, but not dangerously. By this time the object of the sortie was accomplished beyond the most sanguine expectations of the commander and his generals. General Miller had consequently ordered the troops on the right to fall back. Observing this movement, the staff of General Brown was directed along the line, to call in the other corps. Within a few minutes they retired from the ravine, and from thence to camp. Thus one thousand regulars, and an equal portion of militia, in one hour of close action, blasted the hopes of the enemy, destroyed the fruits of fifty days’ labor, and diminished his effective force at least one thousand men.”

After the battle, General Ripley was removed to the American side of the river, and throughout a course of severe suffering for three months his life was despaired of. At the commencement of his convalescence he was removed by short journeys to Albany, where the best medical aid was procured, yet it was nearly a year before he was sufficiently recovered to attend to any military duties. The speedy return of peace caused a reduction in the army, but General Ripley was retained with the brevet and command of major-general. Congress testified their approbation of his gallant services by a vote of thanks, and the presentation of a gold medal, (_See_ Plate VI.;) and the states of New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Georgia, and the country at large, have by honorary tokens and expressions, testified their grateful acknowledgments for his gallantry.

On the return of General Ripley’s health, he removed to his estate at Baton Rouge, near New Orleans, from whence he was elected to Congress. He died in 1834, in the fifty-second year of his age, respected by a numerous circle of friends, who admired his bravery as a soldier, and his virtues as a man.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.

OCCASION.--Battles of Chippewa, Niagara and Erie.

DEVICE.--Bust of General Ripley.

LEGEND.--Brigadier-General Eleazer W. Ripley.

REVERSE.--Victory holding up a tablet among the branches of a palm tree, inscribed with “NIAGARA, CHIPPEWA, ERIE.” In her right hand, which gracefully hangs by her side, are a trumpet and laurel wreath.

LEGEND.--Resolution of Congress, Nov. 3, 1814.

EXERGUE.--Battles of Chippewa, July 5th, 1814; Niagara, July 28th, 1814; Erie, Sept. 17th, 1814.

GEN. PETER B. PORTER.

Peter B. Porter was born of very respectable parents, in Salisbury, Connecticut, August 14th, 1773. His father intending him for the profession of the law, entered him at Yale College, in his own state, where he graduated with high honors to himself and great satisfaction to his preceptors.

Having completed his law studies, he established himself in his native town, from whence he was elected to Congress, where he remained as chairman of the “Committee of Foreign Relations” till 1811. At that period this country was preparing for a war with England, with which she had long been threatened, and every buoyant spirit seemed anxious to take up arms in his country’s cause; and no part of the community engaged in it with greater ardor than the members of the bar.

During the same year he was appointed with Governor Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, William North, Simeon De Witt, Thomas Eddy, Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton, the first commissioners in relation to inland navigation, being the incipient step that led, in the sequel, to the noble works of art and improvement, which contributed so largely (whatever excesses may have been committed) to the glory and prosperity of the state of New York. These labors were suspended, however, by the war of 1812, and for these civic duties, General Porter exchanged the privations and dangers of the frontier campaigns. Residing then at Black Rock, he was in the midst of the most eventful and stirring of the border scenes. He rallied the hastily gathered volunteers, who repelled the first invasion of that place in midsummer, 1813; and shared, at the head of his corps, with intrepidity and skill, in those brilliant and memorable battles of the succeeding year.

In the official papers of General Brown to the secretary of war, after the battle of Chippewa, he speaks of General Porter as follows:--“General Scott having selected this plain with the eye of a soldier, his right resting on the river, and a ravine in front, was joined early in the morning of the 5th by General Porter, with a part of the New York and Pennsylvania volunteers, and some of the warriors of the Six Nations. At 4 o’clock, P. M., General Porter advanced from the rear of our camp with the volunteers and Indians, (taking the woods, in order to keep out of view of the enemy,) with a hope of bringing his pickets and scouting parties between his (Porter’s) line of march and our camp. As Porter moved, the parties advanced in front of our camp, fell back gradually under the enemy’s fire, in order, if possible, to draw him up to our line. Before 5 o’clock, the advance of General Porter’s command met the light parties of the enemy in the woods, upon our extreme left--the enemy were driven; and Porter, advancing near to Chippewa, met their whole column in order of battle.” He also observes:--“The conduct of General Porter has been conspicuously gallant; every assistance in his power to afford, with the description of force under his command, has been rendered.”

In the official details of the battle of Bridgewater, General Brown also says:--“It was with great pleasure I saw the good order and intrepidity of General Porter’s volunteers, from the moment of their arrival; but, during the last charge of the enemy, those qualities were conspicuous. Stimulated by their gallant leader, they precipitated themselves upon the enemy’s line, and made all the prisoners which were taken at this point of the action.”

In General Gaines’ detailed report of the battle of Fort Erie, the August following, he says:--“General Porter’s brigade, of New York and Pennsylvania volunteers, with our distinguished riflemen, occupied the centre.” After describing the action, General Gaines observes:--“Brigadier-General Porter, commanding the New York and Pennsylvania volunteers, manifested a degree of vigilance and judgment in his preparatory arrangements, as well as military skill and courage in action, which proves him to be worthy the confidence of his country, and the brave volunteers who fought under him.” During the next session Congress passed the following resolution:--“Resolved, that the President of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal (_See_ Plate VI.) to be struck, with suitable emblems and devices, and presented to Major-General Porter, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress for his gallantry and good conduct in the several conflicts of Chippewa, Niagara and Erie.” In 1816, he was appointed Secretary of State, in place of Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, but he declined the appointment, having been elected to Congress the previous year. Near the close of his congressional term, he was appointed Commissioner, under the British treaty, to run the boundary line between the United States and Canada. In 1817, he was the antagonist candidate to De Witt Clinton, in the democratic canvass held for the nomination of Governor, and at the election received a few votes, cast by politicians in the city of New York, who refused to acquiesce in the nomination of Clinton. In the political controversies of his time General Porter was a prominent participator, until his retirement from public life with Mr. Adams in 1829. Under that administration, and for the last year of it, he discharged the duties of Secretary of War. He was warmly attached to Mr. Clay, and was related to him by the marriage of his second wife. A frontier resident during the last forty years; possessed of large estates on the border--he is identified with the history of western New York, and with its gigantic progress in the great elements of social and physical developments.

General Porter has been distinguished in our annals in civic and martial life, and there are few among us to whom the meed of talents, bravery and patriotism can be more faithfully awarded. His private life was estimable, as his public career was brilliant. In his domestic relations he was ingenuous, affectionate and kind. In his intercourse with mankind his deportment drew around him a numerous circle of friends. The active and useful life of this distinguished servant of his country was closed at his residence at Niagara, March 20th, 1844, in the seventy-first year of his age.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.

OCCASION.--Battles of Chippewa, Niagara and Erie.

DEVICE.--Bust of General P. B. Porter.

LEGEND.--Major-General P. B. Porter.

REVERSE.--Victory standing holding a palm branch and wreath in her right hand; and three stands of colors, bearing the inscriptions, “_Niagara, Erie, Chippewa_,” in her left. The Muse of History is recording the above names.

LEGEND.--Resolution of Congress, Nov. 3d, 1814.

EXERGUE.--Battles of Chippewa, July 5th, 1814; Niagara, July 25th, 1814; Erie, Sept. 17th, 1814.

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_W. L. Ormsby, sc._]

ALEXANDER MACOMB.

Major-General Alexander Macomb, the son of a respectable fur merchant, was born at Detroit, April 3d, 1782. His father removed to New York when he was an infant, and at the age of eight years placed him at school at Newark, New Jersey, under the charge of Dr. Ogden, a gentleman of distinguished talents and high literary attainments. In 1798, a time of great excitement, as invasion by a French army was soon expected, Macomb, although quite a youth, was elected into a corps called the “New York Rangers;” Congress having passed a law receiving volunteers for the defence of the country. In 1799, Macomb obtained a cornetcy, and General North, then adjutant-general of the northern army, who had watched for some time the soldier-like conduct of our hero, received him into his staff as deputy adjutant-general. Macomb, from his intelligence and attention to his profession, soon became the favorite of the accomplished North, and the pet of his senior officers. He was ambitious of distinction, without ostentation, and persevering even to fatigue.

The thick and dark clouds which hung over the country had passed away, the prospect of war had now vanished, the troops were generally disbanded and many of the officers retired to their homes, but our young officer begged to be retained, and was accordingly commissioned as a second lieutenant of dragoons, and dispatched to Philadelphia on the recruiting service; but this service being more form than necessity, gave Lieutenant Macomb an opportunity to associate with the best informed men, and access to the extensive libraries in that city, advantages which he was anxious to improve. When he had raised the number of recruits required, he was ordered to join General Wilkinson on the western frontiers, to visit the Cherokee country, to aid in making a treaty with that nation, a mission which lasted a year. The corps to which Macomb belonged was soon after disbanded, and a corps of engineers formed, to which he was afterwards attached as first-lieutenant, and sent to West Point.

During his residence at West Point, Lieutenant Macomb compiled a treatise upon martial law, and the practice of courts-martial, now the standard work upon courts-martial, for the army of the United States. In 1805, Macomb was sent to superintend the fortifications, which, by an act of Congress, were ordered to be commenced on the frontiers, and promoted to the rank of captain in the engineer corps. In 1808, he was promoted to the rank of major, still acting as superintendent of fortifications. At the breaking out of the war in 1812, he solicited a command in an artillery corps, then about to be raised, which was granted him, and a commission as colonel of the third regiment, dated July 6th, 1812. The regiment was to consist of twenty companies of one hundred and eighteen each. He assisted in raising the numbers required, and in November of that year he marched to Sacket’s Harbor with his troops, where he spent the winter, having command of the whole of the lake frontier. In January, 1814, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and appointed to a command on the east side of Lake Champlain; from which time to the climax of his fame at the defence of Plattsburgh, he was constantly on the alert, in the discharge of his duties. During the summer of 1814, Sir George Prevost, governor-general of Canada, had greatly augmented his forces, by detachments of picked men from the army which had fought in Spain and Portugal, under the Duke of Wellington, and which, of course, from their long and tried military service, were among the best troops in the world; with these it was intended to strike a decisive blow on our frontier, and bring us to terms at once. In this, however, Sir George was mistaken, as the following extract from Brigadier-General Macomb to the Secretary of War will prove, dated Plattsburgh, September 15, 1814:--

“The governor-general of the Canadas, Sir George Prevost,
having collected all the disposable force of Lower Canada,
with a view of conquering the country as far as Ticonderoga,
entered the territory of the United States on the 1st of the
month, and occupied the village of Champlain--there avowed his
intentions, and issued orders and proclamations, tending to
dissuade the people from their allegiance, and inviting them
to furnish his army with provisions. He immediately began to
impress the wagons and teams in the vicinity, and loaded them
with his baggage and stores, indicating preparations for an
attack on this place. My fine brigade was broken up to form a
division ordered to the westward, which consequently left me in
the command of a garrison of convalescents and the recruits of
the new regiments--all in the greatest confusion, as well as
the ordnance and stores, and the works in no state of defence.

“To create an emulation and zeal among the officers and men,
in completing the works, I divided them into detachments, and
placed them near the several forts--declaring, in orders, that
each detachment was the garrison of its own work, and bound to
defend it to the last extremity. The enemy advanced cautiously,
and by short marches, and our soldiers worked day and night; so
that, by the time he made his appearance before the place, we
were prepared to receive him. Finding, on examining the returns
of the garrison, that our force did not exceed fifteen hundred
men for duty, and well-informed that the enemy had as many
thousand, I called on General Mooers, of the New York militia,
and arranged with him plans for bringing forth the militia _en
masse_.

“The inhabitants of the village fled with their families
and effects, except a few worthy citizens and some boys, who
formed themselves into a party, received rifles, and were
exceedingly useful. General Mooers arrived with seven hundred
militia and advanced seven miles on the Beekmantown road, to
watch the motions of the enemy, and to skirmish with him as
he advanced--also to obstruct the roads with fallen trees,
and to break up the bridges. On the lake road, at Dead-Creek
Bridge, I posted two hundred men, under Captain Sproul, of
the 13th regiment, with orders to abattis the woods, to place
obstructions in the road, and to fortify himself; to this party
I added two field-pieces. In advance of that position was
Lieutenant-Colonel Appling, with one hundred and ten riflemen,
watching the movements of the enemy and procuring intelligence.
It was ascertained that before daylight, on the 6th, the
enemy would advance in two columns, on the two roads before
mentioned, dividing at Sampson’s, a little below Chazy village.
The column on the Beekmantown road proceeded most rapidly; the
militia skirmished with their advanced parties, and, except a
few brave men, fell back most precipitately in the greatest
disorder, notwithstanding the British troops did not design to
fire on them, except by their flankers and advanced patroles.

“Finding the enemy’s columns had penetrated within a mile of
Plattsburgh, I dispatched my aid-de-camp, Lieutenant Root,
to bring off the detachment at Dead-Creek, and to inform
Lieutenant-Colonel Appling that I wished him to fall on the
enemy’s right flank; the Colonel fortunately arrived just
in time to save his retreat, and to fall in with the head
of a column debouching from the woods; here he poured in a
destructive fire from his riflemen at rest, and continued to
annoy the column until he formed a junction with Major Wool.
The field-pieces did considerable execution among the enemy’s
columns. So undaunted, however, was the enemy, that he never
deployed in his whole march, always pressing on in a column.
Finding that every road around us was full of troops, crowding
in on all sides, I ordered the field-pieces to retire across
the bridge and form a battery for its protection, and to cover
the retreat of the infantry, which was accordingly done, and
the parties of Appling and Wool, as well as that of Sproul,
retired alternately, keeping up a brisk fire until they got
under cover of the works. The enemy’s light troops occupied the
houses near the bridge, and kept up a constant firing from the
windows and balconies, and annoyed us much. I ordered them to
be driven out with hot shot, which soon fired the houses and
obliged these sharp-shooters to retire. The whole day, until
it was too late to see, the enemy’s light troops endeavored to
drive our guards from the bridge, but they suffered dearly for
their perseverance.

“Our troops being now all on the south side of the Saranac,
I directed the planks to be taken off the bridges, and piled
up in form of breastworks, to cover our parties intended for
disputing the passage, which afterwards enabled us to hold the
bridges against very superior numbers. From the 7th to the
11th, the enemy was employed in getting his battering train
and erecting his batteries and approaches, and constantly
skirmishing at the bridges and fords. By this time the militia
of New York and volunteers from Vermont were pouring in from
all quarters. I advised General Mooers to keep his force along
the Saranac, to prevent the enemy crossing the river, and to
send a strong body in his rear to harass him day and night, and
keep him in continual alarm. The militia behaved with great
spirit after the first day, and the volunteers from Vermont
were exceedingly serviceable.

“Our regular troops, notwithstanding the constant skirmishing,
and repeated endeavors of the enemy to cross the river, kept
at their work, day and night, strengthening their defences,
and evinced a determination to hold out to the last extremity.
It was reported that the enemy only awaited the arrival of
his flotilla to make a general attack. About eight, on the
morning of the 11th, as was expected, the flotilla appeared
in sight, round Cumberland Head, and at nine, bore down and
engaged our flotilla, at anchor in the bay off this town.
At the same instant, the batteries were opened on us, and
continued throwing bomb-shells, shrapnells, balls and congreve
rockets until sunset, when the bombardment ceased; every
battery of the enemy being silenced by the superiority of our
fire. The naval engagement lasted two hours, in full view of
both armies. Three efforts were made by the enemy to pass the
river at the commencement of the cannonade and bombardment,
with a view of assaulting the works, and had prepared for that
purpose an immense number of scaling ladders; one attempt was
made to cross at the village bridge; another at the upper
bridge; and a third, at a ford, about three miles from the
works. At the two first he was repulsed by the regulars; at the
ford, by the brave volunteers and militia--where he suffered
severely in killed, wounded and prisoners, a considerable
body having passed the stream, but were either killed, taken,
or driven back. The woods at this place were very favorable
to the operations of our militia; a whole company of the
76th regiment was here destroyed--the three lieutenants and
twenty-seven men prisoners; the captain and the rest killed. I
cannot forego the pleasure of here stating the gallant conduct
of Captain McGlassin, of the 15th regiment, who was ordered
to ford the river and attack a party constructing a battery
on the right of the enemy’s line, within five hundred yards
of Fort Brown--which he handsomely executed, at midnight,
with fifty men; drove off the working party consisting of one
hundred and fifty, and defeated a covering party of the same
number, killing one officer and six men in the charge and
wounding many. At dusk, the enemy withdrew his artillery from
the batteries, and raised the siege; and at nine, under cover
of the night, sent off all the heavy baggage he could find
transport for, and also his artillery. At two the next morning,
the whole army precipitately retreated, leaving the sick and
wounded to our generosity; and the governor left a note with
a surgeon, requesting the humane attention of the commanding
general.

“Vast quantities of provision were left behind and destroyed;
also, an immense quantity of bomb-shells, cannon-balls,
grape-shot, ammunition, flints, &c. &c.; intrenching tools
of all sorts, also tents and marquees. A great quantity has
been found in the ponds and creeks, and buried in the ground,
and a vast quantity carried off by the inhabitants. Such was
the precipitance of his retreat, that he arrived at Chazy,
a distance of eight miles, before we had discovered his
departure. The light troops, volunteers and militia, pursued
immediately on learning his flight; and some of the mounted men
made prisoners, five dragoons of the 19th, and several others
of the rear guard. A continued fall of rain, and a violent
storm, prevented further pursuit. Upwards of three hundred
deserters have come in, and many are hourly arriving. The loss
of the enemy in killed, wounded, prisoners and deserters,
since his first appearance, cannot fall short of two thousand
five hundred, including many officers, among whom is Colonel
Wellington, of the Buffs. Killed and wounded on the American
side; thirty-seven killed, sixty-six wounded--missing, twenty;
making one hundred and twenty-three. The whole force under Sir
George Prevost amounted to _fourteen thousand_. The conduct
of the officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of my
command, during this trying occasion, cannot be represented in
too high terms.

“I have the honor, &c.

“ALEX. MACOMB.”

This victory was as brilliant as it was unexpected. The event had a most happy effect on the negotiations then going on at Ghent, and unquestionably hastened the treaty of peace. Testimonials of respect poured in upon General Macomb from every quarter of the country. Congress voted the thanks of the country and a gold medal, (_See_ Plate VII.) The President promoted him to the rank of major-general, dating his commission on the day of his victory.

At the conclusion of the war General Macomb was stationed at his native town, Detroit, and appointed to the command of the northwestern frontier. In 1821 he was called to Washington, to take the office of chief of the engineer department; the duties of which he discharged to the general satisfaction of the government and army, until the death of General Brown, in 1835; he was then nominated to that station, which nomination was confirmed by the senate, and he succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the army. In this capacity he continued to reside at the seat of government, where he died on the 25th of June, 1841, aged fifty-nine years.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.

OCCASION.--Battle of Plattsburgh.

DEVICE.--Bust of General Macomb.

LEGEND.--Major-General Alexander Macomb.

REVERSE.--A battle on land, Plattsburgh in sight: troops crossing a bridge, on the head of which the American standard is flying: vessels engaged on the lake.

LEGEND.--Resolution of Congress, November 3, 1814.

EXERGUE.--Battle of Plattsburgh, September 11th, 1814.

GEN. ANDREW JACKSON.

Andrew Jackson was born on the 15th of March, 1767, at the Waxhaw settlement, in South Carolina. His parents, who were natives of the north of Ireland, emigrated to this country about two years previous to the birth of their son. Having lost his father at an early age, he was left to the care of a faithful and devoted mother, who was anxious to give him such an education as her limited means would permit. For this purpose she placed him at an academy, where he remained until his studies were interrupted by the advance of the British troops into the neighborhood, involving his native spot in a scene of commotion. At the age of fourteen he abandoned his studies for the colonial camp; where, in company with an elder brother, he joined the American army. The troops to which they were attached withdrew to North Carolina, but soon returned again to their own state. Before long they had the misfortune of being made prisoners by the enemy, who treated them with great barbarity, and inflicted injuries upon them from which the brother soon after died.

Andrew only escaped with his life, by receiving on his hand the stroke of the sword which was aimed with fury at his head, by an excited British officer, for refusing to perform some menial service.

His mother survived the death of her son but a few weeks, thus leaving Andrew sole heir to the small estate possessed by his late parents. In 1784, he commenced the study of law in Salisbury, North Carolina; was admitted to practice in 1786, and removed in 1788 to Nashville, Tennessee, then a new settlement in the western district of North Carolina. This district having been ceded to the United States, and organized into a territory in 1790, he was appointed to the office of United States attorney; and when the territory, in its turn in 1796, became the state of Tennessee, he was a leading member of the convention to frame a constitution for it, and took a conspicuous part in the proceedings of that body. Professional success attended him, in consequence of the singular condition of the settlers, and being the only practitioner, introduced him to a lucrative business. He was soon after chosen a representative, and the next year a senator in Congress; his seat in the senate he resigned at the end of the first session; but was immediately appointed, by the legislature of Tennessee, a judge of the supreme court of that state, an office from which he also soon retired. At his farm on the Cumberland river, near Nashville, he continued to reside till the breaking out of the war with Great Britain in 1812. From this time until 1814, Andrew Jackson was employed by government at the head of between two and three thousand volunteers, as a major-general, against a hostile movement of the Creek and Muscogee Indians, who had invaded the frontier settlements of Alabama and Georgia, and inflicted on the inhabitants the usual horrors of savage warfare. After a succession of bloody victories achieved by him over these tribes, a treaty was concluded, and they agreed to suspend their warfare. In 1814 he was appointed a major-general in the United States service; and proceeded to take the command of the forces intended for the defence of New Orleans, against the apprehended attack of the enemy. On arriving there on the 1st of December, he took decided measures, acting with the greatest promptness. Fearing the treachery of some disaffected individuals, he at once proclaimed martial law, superseding at once the civil authority by the introduction of a rigid military police. Towards the enemy he acted with the most determined energy. The British troops had no sooner effected a landing, than he marched against them, and by assailing them in the night of the 22d of December, gained great advantages, not only by proving to his followers what their ability was able to perform, but also to communicate to the invaders what they had to encounter.

This protracted contest was brought to a close by the memorable battle of the 8th of January, 1815, which raised the reputation of the American commander to the highest pitch among his countrymen, and served as a satisfactory apology, with many, for the strong measures adopted by him before the landing of the enemy, and immediately on his retreat. Congress voted to General Jackson the thanks of that body and a gold medal. (_See_ Plate VII.)

In 1818 General Jackson conducted a war against the Seminole Indians, and with a force of Georgia militia and volunteers from Tennessee, he penetrated into Florida to the villages of the savages and fugitive slaves who had joined them, setting fire to their habitations and scattering devastation in all directions. In 1821, he was appointed governor of Florida, that territory having been transferred by Spain to the United States, but resigned the office at the end of one year and returned to his farm near Nashville.

In 1822 the legislature of Tennessee nominated General Jackson as the successor of Mr. Monroe, in the presidency of the United States; the proposition was favorably received in many parts of the Union, but by the provisions of the constitution the election devolved on the House of Representatives, in Congress, voting by states, and Mr. Adams was selected to be the president. General Jackson was at once nominated to succeed Mr. Adams, and was elected president in 1828, and again in 1832 he was re-elected to that high office.

At the end of his second term, General Jackson retired to his farm called the “Hermitage,” near Nashville, where he remained until his death, which took place on the 8th of June, 1845, in the 78th year of his age. Though enfeebled in body he retained his mental faculties undiminished until the day of his death.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.

OCCASION.--Victory at New Orleans.

DEVICE.--Bust of General Jackson.

LEGEND.--Major-General Andrew Jackson.

REVERSE.--Victory seated and supporting a tablet before her with her left hand, which also holds a laurel wreath; has commenced the record of the glorious victory of the 8th of January, 1815, and headed the tablet with the word Orleans, but is interrupted by a female personifying peace, who holds an olive branch in her right hand, and with her left points to the tablet, as if directing Victory to record the peace between the United States and England. Victory is in the act of turning round to listen to her instructress.

EXERGUE.--Battle of New Orleans, January 8th, 1815.

LEGEND.--Resolution of Congress, February 27th, 1815.

GEN. ISAAC SHELBY.