1 6 Preface to Third Edition 



Hampton, being, if possible, even more incompetent 

 than Wilkinson. He remained stationary while a 

 small force of British plundered Plattsburg and 

 Burlington; then, with 5,000 men he crossed into 

 Canada, but returned almost immediately, after a 

 small skirmish at Chauteaugay between his advance 

 guard and some 500 Canadians, in which the former 

 lost 41 and the latter 22 men. This affair, in which 

 hardly a tenth of the American force was engaged, 

 has been, absurdly enough, designated a "battle" by 

 most British and Canadian historians. In reality 

 it was the incompetency of their general and not the 

 valor of their foes that caused the retreat of the 

 Americans. The same comment, by the way, .ap 

 plies to the so-called "Battle" of Plattsburg, in the 

 following year, which may have been lost by Sir 

 George Prevost, but was certainly not won by the 

 Americans. And, again, a similar criticism should 

 be passed on General Wilkinson's attack on La 

 Colle Mill, near the head of the same lake. Neither 

 one of the three affairs was a stand-up fight ; in each 

 a greatly superior force, led by an utterly incapable 

 general, retreated after a slight skirmish with an 

 enemy whose rout would have been a matter of cer 

 tainty had the engagement been permitted to grow 

 serious. 



In the early spring of 1814 a small force of 160 

 American regulars, under Captain Holmes, fighting 

 from behind felled logs, routed 200 British with a 

 loss of 65 men, they themselves losing but 8. On 

 Lake Ontario the British made a descent on Oswego 



