On 2 August, Tompkins ordered the mobilization of three thousand militia to defend New York. A Royal Navy fleet and several thousand veterans of Wellington's army were off the Atlantic coast, prepared to raid at will. Subsequently, Tompkins received Brown's request for more militia to come to the aid of the Left Division on the Niagara Frontier. Tompkins understood, not unreasonably, that it was more important to defend New York City than Buffalo, Sackett's Harbor, or even Plattsburg. Nonetheless he was unwilling to leave Brown out on a limb. When he received Brown's entreaty, he had already resolved to go personally to New York City to oversee preparations there. Therefore he dispatched an aide, Lieutenant Colonel John B. Yates, to Brown with full authority to act in the governor's name. Yates met with Brown at Canandaigua on 20 August. As a result of this meeting, Yates ordered the immediate mobilization of four thousand militia from western New York to rendezvous at Williamsville on 1 September. Porter departed Fort Erie and arranged for the arming and equipping of this force. He also sought to prepare these militiamen for a request that they cross over into Canada to aid the Left Division to break Drummond's siege.
Militia Major General Amos Hall's call in early August for one thousand New Yorkers produced only three hundred militiamen. There were problems paying and equipping even this small number. When Lieutenant Colonel John B. Yates called for four thousand more on 20 August, Brown and Porter knew that much would have to be done to make a force of this size a reality. Brown wanted this militia body in federal service as early as 1 September. Porter left Fort Erie and met with militia officers throughout western New York to find the wherewithal necessary to equip the force. State arsenals which had been depleted by two years of war were levied again for weapons, flints, ammunition, cartridge boxes, canteens, knapsacks, and blankets. Even captured equipment was pressed into service. Slowly the material needs of the militia appeared at Batavia and Buffalo. The troops appeared too, in large numbers. Militia officers at their head, companies marched westward in response to the call. By the end of the first week of September, about three thousand men were mustered into federal service and gathered on the Niagara Frontier. Brown, Gaines, and Porter all wondered whether they would volunteer to cross into Canada.
Major General Brown arrived at Fort Erie on 2 September and put Ripley in charge of the garrison then numbering 2246 effectives. Gaines had been severely injured in the siege and evacuated. Brown believed that the force in the American camp was too small to last much longer in face of a larger adversary. He also understood that evacuation of the fort would be extremely risky. Brown needed the militia gathering in Buffalo to volunteer to cross the river and reinforce the garrison. He returned to Buffalo and turned his attention to feeding, arming, and training the thousands of New York militia arriving at Buffalo and persuading them to cross into Canada. Brown's intention was to coordinate the activities on the Niagara Frontier, leaving Ripley to focus on the defense of Fort Erie. At Buffalo, Brown was visited by newly-brevetted Lieutenant Colonel Eleazar Wood. Wood persuaded Brown to move his headquarters to Fort Erie. Wood argued that the garrison would lose its “moral efficiency” under Ripley, who could not be trusted to defend the American camp with determination. Brown returned to Fort Erie and left Porter in charge of readying the militia.
In the British camp, Drummond pushed forward preparations for another assault. Major General A.L.C. De Watteville arrived in camp on 1 September, sent by Prevost to assist Drummond. The following day the 6th Foot marched into camp. Work began immediately on a third battery, only four hundred yards from Fort Erie and situated to fire directly on the stone barracks that had proven so troublesome to the attack three weeks earlier. Drummond gave the order to move some of the guns from batteries one and two into the third battery. The British continued to fire nearly three hundred rounds each day into the American camp: solid shots, explosive shells, and congreve rockets.
Brown continued Gaines's practice of sending skirmishers into the forest to interfere with British work parties. On 5 September, a detachment of forty soldiers of the 21st Infantry reinforced a picket from the 11th Infantry. Together they pushed back a British picket guard. Both sides threw in reinforcements. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Willcocks, who commanded the Third Brigade while Porter was away, led one hundred New York volunteers into the fray. The fight lasted about six hours until a heavy rainfall persuaded both sides to break contact. Willcocks and Lieutenant Thomas Roosevelt of the New York volunteers were killed in action. The news that the renegade Willcocks was dead boosted morale in the British camp and sounded the death knell for the Canadian Volunteers. The unpopular Benajah Mallory assumed command of the Volunteers and from this point the battalion dissolved as men deserted or chose to fight with other units. The Canadian Volunteers marked the extreme of dissent in Upper Canada and it was fitting that the unit melted away as did the disaffection that spawned it.
Drummond strained every resource at his command to keep the siege alive. He ordered the artillerists to slacken their fire so that they would have enough ammunition to support another assault. Drummond ordered every artillery round at Fort George brought forward except for two hundred rounds per gun, the bare minimum to defend that fort. He sent three vessels to York to pick up supplies and the 97th Foot which was marching from Kingston. Drummond hoped to attack when the 97th arrived in camp. Unfortunately for his plans, U.S. ships reappeared off York before the 97th could be embarked and that formation was forced to continue its tiring march to the Niagara Peninsula on roads reduced to mudpits.
Drummond learned from deserters that several thousand New York militia were gathering at Buffalo and that as many as 2500 had crossed on 10 September to join the garrison at Fort Erie. He ordered his artillery to cease firing to conserve ammunition in case of an American attack. “Every preparation has been made to give the enemy a warm reception,” he wrote to Prevost. Drummond began to see that he could no longer maintain the siege. The garrison inside Fort Erie was now as large or larger than his siege force and the 97th would not arrive for several days. All forage within ten miles of the camp had already been consumed and roads were all but impassable. The rain continued, the temperature was dropping, and the sick list grew accordingly. His men were without tents and stoves. “Should the rainy weather continue only for a few days,” he wrote to Prevost, “I dread the effect it must have on the men in their present situation.”
As circumstances in the British camp deteriorated, that of the Americans improved. The New York militia had responded to the call up with some enthusiasm, no doubt influenced by the expectation that they would be led by Brown and Porter, brave men and competent generals. Brigadier General Daniel Davis ordered out his entire brigade of Gennessee County militia and marched them to Buffalo. Porter had tried to enlist Seneca warriors but they maintained their neutrality. He had better luck with the militia officers with whom he met to persuade them that they and their men were needed at Fort Erie to save the remnants of the Left Division.
The moment of truth arrived on 9 September. Porter assembled more than three thousand militia on the streets of Buffalo. A band played martial music in the pouring rain. Porter asked for volunteers to cross that evening into Canada. Captain Richardson's Company from Cayuga County volunteered to a man. Others joined them. Porter marched this group around the block and across the front of those who held back. The volunteers cheered and cajoled the others. Slowly the ranks of the volunteers grew until they outnumbered those who steadfastly refused to leave New York. When Porter had gathered all that would cross, he marched them off to the boats.
One volunteer, a lawyer, changed his mind and called out that it was unconstitutional to be sent out of the country. Porter sent officers to arrest him and take him back to Buffalo under guard. With order restored, the column embarked and crossed over in the darkness. Brown positioned the New York volunteers, about 2200 in all, southwest of Snake Hill and far from the strike of British artillery. There the men threw up an earthwork wall to protect themselves. The militia who remained in Buffalo were put to work guarding supplies and drilling.
Overshadowed Heroes Part III: The Siege of Fort Erie
Part II: Chippawa and Lundy’s Lane
Part I: Third Brigade of the Left Division
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© Copyright 2002 by Rich Barbuto.
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