It Happened Here -- Part II--A Close  Thing (Twice)

At Sacket's Harbor   

In the eight months of war that followed the first battle of Sacket's Harbor the little port town had been transformed. Its population had exploded with a large influx of Army regulars, militiamen, sailors and civilian ship builders. Shipbuilding facilities, warehouses for ship supplies and  supplies for armies mobilizing here for attacks on the Niagara Frontier and Upper Canada had sprung up around the port. Sacket's Harbor had became the headquarters for prosecuting the war along the northern front.

But surprisingly, the defenses to protect this vital town remained incomplete. The Fort Tompkins blockhouse had been finished, along with the shore batteries that flanked it and both were now armed. 

 

 

Another battery had been built on the opposite side of the harbor, called Fort Volunteer, and any ship that attempted to force its way into the harbor might be subject to a murderous cross-fire. To the southwest a new blockhouse, and Fort Virginia, a small fort built from squared timbers had been constructed.

 

But much of the rest of the town's perimeter was only lightly fortified. A map drawn by General Macomb in March 1813 showed how vulnerable it was. Around much of the perimeter there was nothing but an abbatis of felled trees with their sharpened branches sticking out toward would-be attackers (the 18th and early 19th century equivalent of barbed wire.)  Behind this it appears were a scattering of small wooden redoubts (small log walls, that gave infantrymen some cover, when firing from behind them) -- that was all! To the west of  Fort Tompkins were three rows of unfortified log barracks, with four large rooms in each of them, known as the Basswood Cantonment.

In May of 1813 the British were smarting from a successful raid the Americans had made on the town of York (Toronto) at the far end of the lake. The town had been burned and the Americans had carted off a large amount of supplies that were now being stored in Sacket's Harbor. The American's had also started building at Sacket's Harbor, a large brig, the General Pike, named for the American general killed in that raid. Then on the 28th of May the Americans launched a major assault on Fort George, near Niagara Falls.  British Commander of the fleet on the Great Lakes Captain James Yeo, and  Governor General of Canada, Sir George Provost sensed an opportunity. They cobbled together a raiding party composed of eight companies from four regiments, two companies of French Canadian Voltigeurs and about forty Canadian Native Americans to attack the weakened post of Sacket's Harbor.

As the raiding party began to come ashore, south of the town they spotted sails approaching.  Fearing it was Commodore Chauncey's fleet returning from Ft. George, they hastily returned to their ships but then realized it was nothing more than a group of nineteen American batteaux, under sail, from Oswego. Newly recruited element of the 9th and 21st Regiments were being sent to bolster the defenses at Sacket's Harbor. The British sent three large canoes of Native Americans and a gunboat after them. Seven batteaux escaped and eventually reached Sacket's Harbor. The British opened fire on the rest and the Americans attempted to escape by beaching their boats on Stony Point at the mouth of Henderson Bay and attempting to flee into the woods.  In less than an hour the Indians had tracked down and scalped thirty five of them. The rest, some 115 circled back to their boats where they surrendered to the British.

While the "Battle of Henderson Bay" was a complete British victory, it gave time for the Americans to muster the militia from the  surrounding countryside and to ready their defenses. The infirmary was scoured for any men capable of standing and aiding in a defense.  A unit called the "silver greys" composed mostly of Revolutionary War veterans, that normally performed auxiliary duties was called upon to man the battery at Fort Volunteer. 

Following the battle a larger fortification was built on the site of Ft.Volunteer

The next day the British landed on Horse Island, a small island about a mile from the Harbor that was connected to the shore by a narrow causeway.  As they landed they came under fire from the Albany Volunteers, who had been posted on the island.  The big 32 pounder at Fort Tompkins, that had played such an important role in the first battle,  also reached over the long distance to do damage,  and the militia firing from behind a gravel embankment contributed to British losses.  The Albany Volunteers retreated from the island, then the British, their landing accomplished, charged the narrow spit of land connecting shore and island. The militia from behind their natural gravel breastworks, could have offered serious resistance  but instead they fled in panic into the woods. Once on shore the British formed into two columns, one to advance along shore toward Fort Tompkins and the harbor, the other to protect the first column's flank.

 Despite the militia's precipitous flight, elsewhere pockets of resistance began to coalesce. On the Americans extreme left under the encouragement of one Captain Samuel M'Nitt a group of about 100 militiamen were fighting from behind several downed trees. On the American's right 250 dismounted Dragoons from the 1st Regiment, led by Colonel Electus Backus blocked the road leading to Fort Tompkins and to their left, the Albany Volunteers put up a stiff resistance. They were even joined by soldiers from Fort Volunteer.

Gradually, the British superiority of numbers forced the Americans back.  The Dragoons made a stand in a low drainage ditch that ran from in front of the new log barracks to the water; then they retreated to the partially completed barracks themselves, where fierce fighting occurred as muskets, bayonets and swords were thrust and parried in and out through windows and doors.

In front of Fort Tompkins one of the British ships had worked its way forward  to where it could fire on the fort. The wind had become extremely light and variable, but the Beresford's captain had used his ship's sweeps (long oars) to maneuver his boat to where he could attack the fort. The ship's cannon fire drove the Tompkin's gun crews from their guns and several shots from the Beresford         flew over the fort, crashing into the port. At the port a young acting Lieutenant John Drury had been given the order to set fire to the warehouses and the General Pike if the British were about to take the town.  From his position he could see panicked and wounded militiamen and solders streaming back through the town. He could hear the guns of Fort Tompkins had fallen silent, and then perhaps he thought the Fort's guns were being turned on the port itself. The young novice officer decided the time had come to execute his order. Within a few minutes the warehouses filled with ships stores and recently captured British supplies were burning out of control. He had set fire to the General Pike and also to the recently captured Duke of Gloucester.   

The acting Commandant of Sacket's Harbor was General Jacob Brown who had taken command of the port when General Henry Dearborne had left on the expedition against Fort George.  Brown was a General of Militia and was especially upset and embarrassed when his men had so precipitously fled at the beginning of the battle. Determined to bring them back, he sent out several mounted Dragoons into the woods armed with a lie. He told them to tell the fleeing men they found, that the British were beaten and in retreat.  When about three hundred of them were collected up, prepared to join in the victory, Brown addressed them, shaming them for their actions, exhorting them to redeem themselves, and steeling them for the fighting that still had to be done. (And assuring them that he had taken precautions that any of them that showed conspicuous cowardliness would be shot.)  He then marched about two hundred of them through the woods to attack the flank of British troops attacking the barracks.  The other one hundred were sent farther back to attack the British landing site if the opportunity presented itself.

By now the British attack was beginning to falter. Nearly one third of the attackers had been killed or wounded and Fort Tompkins and the Port had yet to be taken. Informants had told Captain Yeo and General Prevost that another regiment of Americans was at Oswego and would presumably try to march to the aid of the Americans at Sacket's Harbor. Now with the sudden appearance of Americans firing on their flanks it was easy to jump to the conclusion that this had happened. General Prevost called for a withdrawal. For the exhausted British troops the withdrawal deteriorated into a rout.  The Americans could not keep up and scores of dead and wounded British soldiers were left behind where they fell as the King's forces scrambled to return to their landing area. George Provost made one last effort to accomplish with bravado that which he could he could not accomplish with arms. He demanded the Americans surrender the town to him; then he demanded his surgeons be allowed to treat their wounded and recover them.  The Americans laughed at his first demand, and assured him his wounded would be treated with all humanity and care as American prisoners of war.

The warehouses set on fire were a total loss as some $500,000 went up in flames.  The ships, however, built out of green wood did not burn well and were saved.

Following this attack the defenses around Sacket's Harbor were greatly improved.  Fort Volunteer was replaced by Fort Pike with higher ramparts, more guns and a blockhouse.  The abbatis surrounding the town was strengthened by a wooden breastworks. A stone tower, Ft. Chauncy guarded one of the main roads into the town,  and an earthen redoubt, covering the road taken by the British in the 1813 attack was built. Sacket's Harbor was never attacked again.