By Liutenant Commander Benjamint Armstrong, U.S. Navy
During the War of 1812, operations
that present-day naval analysts would call ‘maritime irregular warfare’
were an important part of the conflict on the Great Lakes.
Conventional study of the naval history of the War of 1812 has
focused on two specific areas: squadron engagements and ship-on-ship
duels. The engagements of the frigates
Constitution and
Essex
, as well as the victories of Master Commandants Oliver Hazard Perry
and Thomas McDonough over Royal Navy squadrons on the northern lakes,
have been studied and written about by many naval historians. However,
there was another element of the maritime war that receives less
attention. Gunboat operations, maritime raids, and cutting-out
expeditions were common elements of naval warfare during the Age of Sail
in general, and the War of 1812 in particular.
Perhaps because of the shadow cast across naval history by Captain
Alfred Thayer Mahan, and his often-told principle that naval warfare is
defined by fleet engagements, these operations are frequently left as
footnotes in the histories of the U.S. and British navies. However, on
the Great Lakes during the only declared war between the United States
and Great Britain, these operations were common and played a role in
determining the balance of power.
A Flotilla for Black Rock
When war was declared in June of 1812, neither the British nor the
Americans were genuinely ready to commence naval operations on the Great
Lakes. Not much had changed by the following fall. On Lake Erie the
Americans established their base at Black Rock, located at the southern
end of the Niagara River. Commodore Isaac Chauncey, the newly appointed
American naval commander for the Great Lakes, assigned Lieutenant Jesse
Elliott to begin building a naval presence there. The 30-year-old
Elliott had been appointed a lieutenant two years prior and was in
search of a way to make his name in the wartime Navy.
1
He had been born in Maryland in July 1782. When he was nine years
old his father was killed by an Indian party while working to purchase
supplies for the U.S. Army in Ohio, under Major General Anthony Wayne.
Elliott’s mother kept him in school in Pennsylvania, where he prepared
to study law until he was 18, when he received an appointment as a
midshipman and orders to report to the
Essex . Like Oliver
Hazard Perry, Elliott’s eventual superior on Lake Erie with whom he
would have a lifelong rivalry, he saw his first combat during the First
Barbary War. Unlike Perry, Elliott was not promoted at the end of the
conflict. In 1810 he received the appointment as an acting lieutenant
that he had been seeking for years, and he served on board the frigate
Enterprise , the corvette
John Adams , and the brig
Argus before the outbreak of war with the British.
2
Across the Niagara River from Black Rock was a small Canadian
garrison at Fort Erie. The fortifications had been under construction
since the end of the French and Indian War, though progress had been
slow. The British attempted to accelerate construction of the defensive
works as soon as hostilities were announced. The British regulars and
Canadian militia were spread thin. They struggled to cover the frontier
with gun emplacements, attempting to locate one every mile to ward off
the invasion they were sure would come. On rising ground that lay across
from the Americans at Black Rock they had constructed three small
batteries, but they left the rest of the works unfinished due to “want
of means.”
3
Elliott’s orders, once his base was selected, were to begin
construction of two 300-ton schooners and a half-dozen gunboats. The
Navy had purchased several small coasters, and he was in the process of
fitting them out as warships as well, but with few supplies and fewer
skilled shipwrights the process was laboriously slow. On 6 October
Elliott received a report that two British brigs were headed up the lake
to anchor under the guns at Fort Erie. By the morning of the 8th, the
Detroit , rated at 14 guns, and
Caledonia , rated at 3 guns, lay at anchor across from Black Rock. The
Detroit had previously been the American vessel
Adams
, which was captured and reflagged by the British during their
successful attack on the American outpost at Detroit in August. The two
vessels carried arms and prisoners from the battle that were to be
offloaded at Fort Erie.
4
A Bold Plan
As Elliott gazed at the enemy across the Niagara River, he received
the first good news that had come his way in weeks. The sailors and
officers that Commodore Chauncey had promised him were spotted on the
wilderness roads not far from his base. He sent an express rider with
orders for the men to hurry their march, since he had “determined to
make an attack,” the goal of which would be to capture the pair of
British vessels newly arrived off Fort Erie. By noon the men arrived at
Black Rock. Elliott realized they were unarmed, only carrying about 20
pistols and no cutlasses or battle-axes, and told them to rest for their
intended mission while he put his plan together.
5
Elliott approached Brigadier General Alexander Smyth, the commander
of the U.S. Army regulars at Black Rock, and Major General Amos Hall,
who commanded the local frontier militia. The two senior officers agreed
to loan him the arms that his sailors would need from the Army’s
supplies. General Smyth recognized the daring of the plan and detached a
group of 50 regulars armed with muskets and placed them under Elliott’s
command for the cutting-out. As the men rested the lieutenant had two
boats, with a capacity for 50 men each, prepared and hidden in nearby
Buffalo Creek.
While the expedition was being prepared, the British sent Captain
Harris H. Hickman across the river by boat. Hickman, a U.S. Army
officer, was among the prisoners from Detroit who had been transported
on board the ships. Paroled by the British, he brought with him an
accurate report of the manning of the two ships as well as their arms
and cargo. A British account later admitted that Hickman revealed to his
countrymen the ships’ “defenceless state.”
6
In the early-morning darkness Elliott loaded his joint force of
sailors and Army regulars aboard the two boats. At 0100 they shoved off
and headed south against Buffalo Creek’s current before crossing the
Niagara’s mouth. It took two hours of hard pulling at the oars but the
boats pulled alongside the two ships at 0300 and caught the British
completely by surprise. The Americans poured over the gunnels of the
ships and quickly subdued their prisoners. Elliott reported that within
ten minutes of boarding the sailors had secured the prisoners, slipped
the anchors, sheeted the topsails, and had the
Detroit under way as the
Caledonia followed.
7
The plan had worked smoothly until this point. As the Americans
attempted to sail their captured vessels into the lake, the operation
started to come apart when they encountered a rapidly moving current and
little wind. Elliott gave up his plan to sail the ships clear and was
instead forced to head downstream into the river, directly under the
guns of Fort Erie. The alarm was raised (the British report was that
300–400 men had overwhelmed the ships’ defenders) and the batteries
opened fire.
8
Escape From Fort Erie
The heavy guns mounted in the incomplete works at Fort Erie poured
round as well as canister and grapeshot into the two ships as they
passed the fort. Elliott struggled to keep control of the
Detroit , as the
Caledonia
was beached under a battery of American guns on the east side of the
river. While the British shifted their “flying artillery” to keep the
Detroit
under fire, Elliott dropped anchor, fearing (from a faulty report)
that another British vessel lay farther downriver. He threatened the
British gunners, warning that he would bring his prisoners on deck to
bear the brunt of the grapeshot. When his threat didn’t silence the
guns, he reconsidered and decided “not to commit and act that would
subject me to the imputation of barbarity.”
9
With the batteries at Black Rock covering the
Caledonia , Elliott ordered all the guns on board the
Detroit
hauled over to bear on the western shore. The American sailors
commenced fire into the British artillery positions. Elliott sent a boat
with a heavy line from the ship toward the eastern bank of the river,
hoping they would be able to pull the brig to the American side. The
current moved too quickly, however, forcing the boat to pay out all the
line before it reached the shore. An attempt from the bank, with a line
already secured ashore, met with the same fate.
Meanwhile, the gun crews on board the
Detroit , firing
all the ship’s cannon in a single broadside, rapidly expended all their
powder and shot and were left defenseless. Hoping to get out of range of
the heavy guns so he could make a final stand against the mobile
artillery pieces, Elliott cut the cable of the anchor and the brig
drifted downstream. The
Detroit drifted stern first, moving with the current for about ten minutes until she ran aground on Squaw Island.
10
Elliott immediately offloaded his prisoners in the boat his force
had used to attack the ship, sending them ashore under the guard of most
of his crew. With only a few men left, the Americans lowered a skiff
that they found. When Elliott abandoned the vessel, “she had received
twelve shot of large size in her bends[,] her sails in ribbons, and her
rigging all cut to pieces.”
11
Take-Back Attempts
The
Detroit was still heavy with weapons, both the
ship’s guns and approximately 200 muskets that were being moved from
Detroit to Fort Erie, as well as powder and ball for the muskets.
12
The British sent a boat with 40 men across the river to board and
attempt to salvage what they could from the brig. Heavy cannon and
musketry fire from the American side of the river drove them off.
A second attempt was made, with only a handful of men under the
command of Major Cornet Pell of the Niagara Light Dragoons. The boat
safely made it abeam the
Detroit , with the beached hull
providing cover for the British party. However, as they reached the
stranded ship, the current continued to push them downstream where they
rounded her stern. Now exposed to American musket fire from the
shoreline just a hundred yards away, the British began taking
casualties. As Major Pell attempted to hoist himself through the cabin
windows at the
Detroit ’s stern, a musket ball caught him in
the forehead, killing him instantly. His body fell back in the boat,
and the party struggled back to the British riverbank, every man on
board wounded by the withering fire.
13
Throughout the day the cannon and musket fire continued from both
sides. Elliott eventually realized that it had “so much injured her [the
Detroit ] that it was impossible to float her.”
14
In order to keep the British from being able to salvage anything, he
elected to end the standoff. As evening approached he reported to
Commodore Chauncey, “I determined at once to set her on fire.”
15
Despite the fact that the
Detroit burned, Elliott was
still able to pull some advantage from taking the ship. During the night
his men salvaged some of her guns to provide the nucleus of the
armament needed for the vessels being built and fitted out at Black
Rock. On board the
Caledonia were $200,000 worth of furs that the vessel’s owners, the Northwest Company, had hoped to ship to England.
16 After the prize money was split and she had been refitted, the
Caledonia
was officially purchased by the U.S. Navy. Placed under the command of
Lieutenant Daniel Turner, the ship proved invaluable at the Battle of
Lake Erie when her two long 24-pound guns were the only ones that had
the range to hit the heavy British ships as they pounded Perry’s
flagship, the
Lawrence . The
Caledonia also served in the 1814 expeditions on Lakes Huron and Superior before being sold in Erie at the close of the war.
17
The cutting-out of the
Detroit and
Caledonia
caught virtually everyone by surprise. Commodore Chauncey remarked to
Secretary Hamilton that “Lieutenant Elliott deserves much praise,” and
that he “had no particular orders from me” and was acting out of his own
initiative. Chauncey predicted that, because Elliott’s attack deprived
the British of two vessels while providing one, as well as arms, to the
Americans, control of Lake Erie would be gained before he would be able
to establish command of Lake Ontario.
18
He was right; building on the fleet that Elliott founded at Black
Rock, Oliver Hazard Perry would take command of Lake Erie first. His
suggestion that the lake would be taken in mere months, however, turned
out to be optimistic, and it was a year before Perry’s victory near
Put-in-Bay.
A Double-Edged Sword
By the summer 1814, American forces had controlled Lake Erie for
almost a year since Perry’s victory. He and Elliott had both moved on,
with new orders to the Atlantic coast, and Captain Arthur Sinclair had
taken the Lake Erie command. That summer he departed on an expedition to
Lake Huron, leaving Lieutenant Edmund Kennedy at Presque Isle with
responsibility for the naval forces on Lake Erie and orders to cooperate
with the Army. In support of operations on the Niagara Peninsula,
Kennedy placed three schooners, the
Somers ,
Ohio , and
Porcupine , off Fort Erie. It was nearly the same anchorage where the
Detroit and
Caledonia had lain two years prior.
In July Brigadier General Jacob Brown and his U.S. troops crossed
the Niagara River, captured Fort Erie, and defeated the British at the
Battle of Chippewa. But the offensive stalled, and British forces under
Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond arrived on the Niagara Peninsula.
The two armies clashed at the hard-fought Battle of Lundy’s Lane, a
tactical draw but a British strategic victory in that the American
advance on the Niagara front was curtailed. General Brown was injured
and the Americans pulled back to Fort Erie, where the British began
establishing siege lines.
19
The British had no naval forces on Lake Erie to contest the waters
or to challenge the three schooners overlooking their positions around
Fort Erie. Undeterred by the lack of traditional naval force, officers
under Commodore James Yeo on Lake Ontario devised a plan to strike at
the small American squadron. A force of five bateaux, one gig, and 200
sailors and marines was gathered together near the Niagara River’s
outlet on Lake Ontario for an attack. The operation was placed under the
command of Commander Alexander Dobbs, the commanding officer of the
square-rigged sloop HMS
Lord Melville in Yeo’s Ontario squadron, with the assistance of Lieutenant Charles Radcliffe, who commanded the brig-sloop
Netley .
Dobbs was 30 years old and a lieutenant when he came to Canada to
join Commodore Yeo in 1813, the two having served together on board
the ship-sloop Confiance
. Born in Dublin in 1784, Dobbs joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman
at the age of 13 and received his lieutenant’s commission at the age of
20. In February 1814, after a year on the lake, he was promoted to
commander and had command of the
Lord Melville , which was
renamed the Star. The senior of the commanding officers in a division of
sloops and schooners tasked with supplying the British Army on the
Niagara Peninsula, he was placed in charge of the four ships that
ferried supplies and men between Forts Niagara and George.
20
Midnight Raiders
With the famous Niagara Falls and other obstacles between Dobbs’
raiding force and Lake Erie, the party devised an overland route to
close with Fort Erie. The first half of the journey the boats traveled
up the Niagara River. Once they reached the farthest point of navigation
southbound, they put ashore and the men began clearing a wilderness
road south across the peninsula. The boats were hoisted onto wagons and
dragged ten miles to the water near Point Ebony.
21
After dark the British raiders put their boats in the water and
embarked the force, moving upriver toward the anchorage overlooking Fort
Erie. It was an extremely dark night, and they likely used muffled oars
to conceal the sound as they moved through the water, making their
approach difficult to detect. Near midnight the American schooners came
within sight, and the boats closed silently on them. It wasn’t until the
British came alongside the American ships’ anchor cables that a lookout
on board the
Somers called out a challenge.
The British replied that they were “provision boats.” The American
land forces had been using the cover provided by the schooners to move
provisions and cargo along the river to supply the besieged troops at
Fort Erie, so the response sounded reasonable and fooled the
Somers ’ officer of the deck. It gave the raiders enough time for their boats to get in position alongside the
Somers and
Ohio .
22
The
Somers was attacked first, as the British cut her
anchor cable and poured several volleys of musket fire across the deck.
Two men on watch were quickly wounded. Before he could respond to
support his sister ship, Lieutenant Augustus Conckling, the officer
commanding the
Ohio , found bateaux alongside his own
schooner and the British swarming aboard. Musket and pistol fire were
exchanged as cutlasses were drawn, and a bloody struggle ensued on the
deck of the small ship. The 35-man crew of the
Ohio was overwhelmed by the much larger British force.
The Americans on deck rallied with their skipper. Holding off the
attackers, they shot and killed Lieutenant Radcliffe as he attempted to
scale the stern of the ship to come at them from behind. Master’s Mate
Alexander McCully was shot through the thigh and was bayoneted in the
foot as he defended the ship alongside his skipper. As the British
pressed their assault, Lieutenant Conckling’s sword was knocked from his
hand when he took a musket ball through the shoulder. Conckling
reported that “as their force was an overwhelming one, I thought further
resistance vain & gave up the vessel with the satisfaction of
having performed my duty and defended my vessel to the last.”
23
The Luck of the Porcupine
Commander Dobbs reported that, of the schooners, “two of them were carried sword in hand in a few minutes.”
24 However, with the cables cut the ships began to drift apart. The
Somers and
Ohio were pushed to leeward of the
Porcupine
before the British raiders could reorganize and launch an assault on
the third ship. The two captured schooners drifted toward the Niagara
River rapids, and the British sailors and marines focused on getting
control of the vessels, rather than worrying about the
Porcupine . They eventually anchored under the British siege batteries that faced Fort Erie.
The
Porcupine lost one of her anchors during the night
and dragged down toward the rapids. As the ship passed the British
positions she was challenged by a sentry, just as the wind sprang up.
The Americans gave no response, instead setting sail and heading for the
open lake. The batteries ashore opened up and the
Porcupine
returned fire as she ran toward the open water. The gun crews kept up a
heavy fire, pouring round, grape, and canister shot into the enemy’s
positions, hitting and dismounting five of the British cannon. Clearing
the Niagara River, the schooner sailed for Presque Isle. After repairs
there, she soon sailed again for Fort Erie.
25
The British suffered two killed and four wounded in the operation. The
Somers
, having been attacked first and taken completely by surprise, had two
members of the crew injured before they were overwhelmed and
surrendered. The crew of the
Ohio suffered the most, having
fought a short but pitched battle with the raiders on their deck. One
seaman was killed, shot through the body, and seven others were wounded,
including Lieutenant Conckling.
26
General Drummond ordered a message read to all the troops in the
corps that had held the siege of Fort Erie, congratulating the raiders
on their success. He was so inspired by it that he told his men he
intended to launch other attacks and called on them to volunteer if they
desired, or provide similar ideas for raids.
27
The Americans held out at Fort Erie until November. The British
schooners and the threat they posed to the resupply of the fort
contributed to the fear that they would be unable to maintain their
position during the winter months. The Americans decided to evacuate and
destroy the fort.
28
Irregular Warfare, Then and Now
Ship duels and squadron actions created many larger-than-life naval
heroes out of captains and commodores during the War of 1812. However,
the history of aggressive junior officers, and the use of maritime
irregular warfare, illuminates important elements of the war that were
no less daring. Today, during the bicentennial of the War of 1812, both
the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy find themselves conducting maritime
security operations, antipiracy patrols, and irregular warfare
worldwide—the kinds of missions that were conducted by junior officers
and gunboats throughout the Age of Sail.
The irregular naval operations conducted at the mouth of the
Niagara River in 1812 and 1814 provide illustrative examples and an
important foundation for discussions of irregular warfare and
21st-century naval operations. Both Elliott and Dobbs became career
officers who were promoted to captain in their respective services. In
the War of 1812 they demonstrated the ability of maritime irregular
warfare
Article publicat la U.S. Naval Institute. Tot i ser un article d'Història, o potser precisament per això, el compartim amb els lectors per totes aquelles lliçons que se'n poden extraure.
