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July 20, 1813 An American Major and 32 men of Forsyth's rifles regiment came down the St. Lawrence River in two small gunboats, Fox and the Neptune, rigged with oars with possibly 40 volunteer riflemen. They were looking to intercept some 15 bateaux, which had been reported travelling the river loaded with pork and hard bread for the British troops at Kingston. The plan was to land some men on the shore to prevent any escape of the British, should they start for land. The gunboats captured 15 bateaux and an armed boat that was escorting them. The Americans ten took their captured supplies up Cranberry Creek. This is where the American boats got trapped by the British 18-gun brig Elmira. But the Brig was too large to get up the creek, so the British dispatched a number of smaller boats. These boats were driven off by a battery of guns removed from the American Gunboats and stationed up the creek shore. The British were forced to return to the Elmira. Stall trapped the Americans attempted to slip passed the mouth of the creek by rowing around an island. After successfully getting out, the gunboats raised their sails . . . and ran directly into the Brig Elmira! Outgunned, the American captain struck his colors and sails but then floated past the Elmira with the supply boats in tow. When ordered by the British to stop and pull alongside, the captain replied that his steering mechanism was jammed. After passing the brig, the gunboats raised their sails and flag and made off with the goods before the British could respond. The expedition returned safely to Sacket's Harbor although later it was unsuccessfully attacked by an armed schooner, the Earl of Moira. The hall was 270 barrels of pork and 270 bags of hard bread. July 21- 28, 1813 The second siege was more ruse than siege. Tecumseh's warriors staged a mock battle in the woods to make it appear as if they were attacking a column of American reinforcements to lure Green Clay's 100 defenders out of the fort. However, Clay knew no reinforcements were coming, and the ruse failed. July 27, 1813 Its hard now for us to think of Alabama as being basically unpopulated, but during the War of 1812, Alabama was more pure wilderness than frontier. The local Native American Creeks began, during this period, to attack settlements it saw as white intruders. In June, a war party of 100-300 "Red Stick" Creeks took a number of Americans captive and marched them to Pensacola Florida (The numbers of Red Sticks vary in the accounts.) Upon arriving in Pensacola, the party sold one woman to the Spanish for a blanket, then demanded a large quantity of powder and lead to "make war of the Americans." The Spanish governor agreed to the request and the party marched back into Alabama, camping at Burnt Corn Creek just north of Pensacola. This unguarded camp was attacked by three understrength companies of militia (about 120 Men) sent to respond to the June raids. The Creeks recovered quickly and drove off the attacking militia and even captured their horses. For some time after that admitting you were with the American forces at the Battle of Burnt Corn was something of an embarrassment. Many in Alabama blamed the commanders of this affair, claiming that this convinced the Red Sticks to attack Ft. Mins. July 29, 1813 Col. Murray embarked his force numbering over 1,400 men, including infantry, sailors and marines in two war sloops, three gunboats, and forty-seven longboats set out up the Richelieu River from the British base at Isle aux Noix. Some of the British gunboats fired on Burlington and exchanged a few shots with local batteries in town. Murray and his force landed in Plattsburgh without opposition, easily drove off the defenders, and began a well planned destruction of the town. They destroyed the block-house, arsenal on Broad Street, armory and hospital and the military cantonment at Fredenbergh Falls, two miles up the river, the British wantonly burned three private store-houses, taking possession of hardware belonging to the merchants of the city of Boston, and broke into and robbed private dwellings. When Murray withdrew, he left a guard of 21 men in the town, which were immediately seized and sent as prisoners to Burlington. The long boats and two of the gunboats went north, landing their men at Cumberland Head and Point au Roche, where they pillaged the houses and farms. July 31, 1813 After the failure at Stoney Creek, Scott intended to attack the British position at Burlington Heights at the western end of Lake Ontario by landing as they did at Ft. George in May, but he determined that the defenders were too well-entrenched. This may have been the first time Scott did not choose to attack a position. Instead, he decided to make another attack on York, and landed east of the town on July 31. There was no opposition. (The British regulars stationed at York had been rushed to Burlington Heights.) The Americans burned a barracks and seized some cannon and flour and then returned to the fleet. The next day they returned to investigate reports of valuable stores that were concealed up the Don River. Nothing was found and the American fleet departed. August 2, 1813
After failing to capture Ft. Meigs, Proctor moved his troops by ship along the shore of Lake Erie and up the Sandusky River, his final goal is a supply depot located up river. His first target was Ft. Stephenson. The fort was garrisoned by 160 U.S. regulars under the command of Maj. George Croghan. Harrison, feeling the defenders were outnumbered, ordered Maj. Croghan to burn Fort Stephenson and retreat. Croghan, however, told Harrison he could defend the fort. When Proctor arrived he demanded the Americans surrender and Croghan refused. The British opened fire with both the guns of their fleet and field artillery . . . only to find that their 6 pounders were pointless against the walls of the fort. Proctor followed up this failure with a direct infantry attack. Repeated assaults failed to get gain the fort. Although Proctor's regulars do get to the wall, the lack of scaling ladders made the effort pointless. Proctor soon withdraws but is blamed for wasting to lives of his men in the attack. Harrison too is blamed for sitting out the battle and failing to use the opportunity to cut off and destroy Proctor's force.
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