172 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



by a sentry who was promptly shot down as he attempted to escape. 

 When half way across the second bridge another sentry fired at them 

 and was also shot. Several shots were fired from houses and an in- 

 habitant who was detected while deliljerately taking aim through a 

 window, was killed in the act. After a few minutes delay, they were 

 informed by a resident that the garrison, consisting of one company 

 of the Troy Volunteers, had been warned of their approach by Indian 

 scouts, and had shut themselves up in the blockhouse, which was not 

 yet roofed in. It was quickly surrounded and three officers and forty- 

 one men surrendered as prisoners of war. Three bateaux and fifty- 

 seven stand of arms were taken. In defiance of the strictest orders 

 the Indians managed to break open and plunder several houses, one of 

 them being owned by the man who had acted as guide and carried a 

 summons to the blockhouse. Gray at once proffered compensation 

 which was paid two months later to the amount of several hundred 

 dollars, being in all probability much in excess of the real loss. The 

 captured bateaux were sunk, the arms broken up and the expedition 

 recrossed the river without loss.* 



After his arrival at Plattsburg, Dearborn discharged the whole 

 of his militia, whose numbers had already considerably decreased 

 through desertion. Three regiments of regular infantry under Colonel 

 Pike were quartered at Plattsburg; three others commanded by Briga- 

 dier General Chandler were stationed at Burlington, while the cavalry 

 and artillery were withdrawn to Greenbush. Although it was after- 

 wards acknowledged that his movement to the frontier and bej'^ond 

 had been solely intended as a demonstration and was so interpreted 

 by his opponent, his confident tone and the strength of his force had 

 aroused extravagant expectations among his countrymen. The editor 

 of the Aurora, of Philadelphia, Colonel Duane, one of the most in- 

 fluential and presumably best informed of the journalists supporting 

 the administration, had remarked, so late as November 23: — 



"The army must have entered the enemy's countr}?^ about the 

 20th, and three days will have brought the troops to conflict unless 

 the British make war like the Russians. The gallantry and fidelity 

 of the militia, Green Mountain Boys and l^rave New Yorkers, will 

 save them from the reproach hitherto cast upon the boasted bulwark 

 of the republic by the brutality and cowardice displayed by idle spec- 

 tators at Queenston, and put to shame the treacher}'' and faithlessness 

 of neighbors in Massachusetts." 



Dearborn's apparently inexplicable retreat without even fairly 

 coming to blows evoked the most caustic criticism from friends as well 



*(jray to Baynes, Nov, 23; Prévost to Bathurst, Nov. 2(3; Prévost to the Duke 

 of York, Nov. 30; York (U.C.) Oazcttc, 1812. 



