HISTORY

Fooled You Once . . .

In March 1814, Gen. Jacob Brown received not one, but two letters with instructions, both written by the Secretary of War, John Armstrong, on February 28th 1814.

In the first he is ordered to attack Kingston . . . if the weather is favorable, if the British have detached enough men from the post to make an attack promising and if Commodore Chauncey agreed to support the attack.

The second letter ordered his entire 2,000 man command to Batavia to support Gen. Gaines who task was to recapture Ft. Niagara. Commodore Chauncey, who was overly cautious and disagreeable at the best of times, convinced Brown to follow the instructions in the second letter. Yet upon arrival in Geneva, N.Y. Gaines persuaded Brown that he was in the wrong place. Confused, Brown kept his command at Geneva awaiting instructions from Armstrong.

Finally, he received word that the second letter was a diversion, intended to fall into British hands, to convince them that they should shift troops from Kingston to the Niagara river region.

Brown raced back to Sackett's Harbor to prepare to attack Kingston, but upon arrival found Commodore Chauncey still disagreeable and that the British had not detached any men to the Niagara region . . . because the letter intended for the British had been delivered to Brown instead.

Now the ice was gone off the lake and the roads, what few there were, had turned to mud, so that none of Armstrong's conditions for the Kingston attack were now true. Gen. Brown wisely gave the whole operation up and returned to Buffalo.

Armstrong had been too clever for his own good and too clever for his officers as well. Little wonder that Armstrong is recognized as one of the worst Secretaries of War in American history.