[CRUIKSHANK] COMMAND OF LAKE ONTARIO, 1812-1813 iT, 
the buildings and dockyard and effect their retreat without effective 
pursuit. When the American advance guard at length entered the 
town they found the principal storehouse and the hull of the new 
ship which had been named the Sir Isaac Brock, so completely wrapped 
in flames that it was impossible to save them. An _ unsuccessful 
attempt had also been made to destroy the Duke of Gloucester which 
lay aground much out of repair. A small merchant schooner became 
a prize. 
Late in the afternoon Chauncey accompanied Dearborn on shore 
and created a very favourable impression by his courtesy to a deputa- 
tion of the inhabitants appointed to arrange terms of capitualtion. 
Next morning, however, a party of seamen, who had remained in the 
town all night and become intoxicated, created great alarm by setting 
fire to the Parliament buildings and plundering shops and private 
dwellings. 
The threat of an attack on Kingston had been successful in de- 
taining troops and guns there which had been intended for the defence 
of York. The number of regular troops in garrison numbered less 
than five hundred of all ranks and arms, belonging to four different 
corps. One hundred and sixty-three were reported killed, wounded or 
- missing, being thirty per cent. Three hundred local militia were 
paroled. 
The expedition had achieved a considerable success not without 
serious loss. Of the troops employed, General Pike and seventy- 
eight others were killed or died of wounds and two hundred and fifty 
officers and men were wounded. Besides these two midshipmen and 
four seamen were killed and fifteen or twenty seamen wounded. 
The destruction of the ship and naval stores accumulated for 
her completion was a great disappointment as a large gang of ship- 
wrights had been brought from Sackett’s Harbour purposely to put 
her in a fit state for launching. These men were immediately set 
to work on the Gloucester, which was soon got afloat and repaired 
sufficiently to be towed off as a prize. Twenty guns of several different 
calibres, most of them unserviceable, were taken, besides a considerable 
quantity of arms and ammunition in transit to other posts. 
“The loss of stores at this place will be an irreparable loss to the 
enemy,’ Chauncey wrote confidently, ‘for independent of the diffi- 
culty of transportation, the articles cannot be replaced in this country. 
The provisions and clothing also taken and destroyed will be a serious 
loss to him. If we succeed in our next enterprise, (which I see no 
reason to doubt), we may consider the upper province as conquered.”’! 


1 Chauncey to the Secretary of the Navy, May 7, 1813. 
