CHAPTER IV 

 1812 



ON THE LAKES 



PRELIMINARY The combatants starting nearly on an 

 equality Difficulties of creating a naval force Diffi 

 culty of comparing the force of the rival squadrons 

 Meagreness of the published accounts Unreliability of 

 James ONTARIO Extraordinary nature of the Ameri 

 can squadron Canadian squadron forming only a kind 

 of water militia Sackett's Harbor feebly attacked by 

 Commodore Earle Commodore Chauncy bombards 

 York ERIE Lieutenant Elliott captures the Detroit 

 and Caledonia Unsuccessful expedition of Lieutenant 

 Angus. 



AT the time we are treating of, the State of 

 Maine was so sparsely settled, and covered 

 with such a dense growth of forest, that it was prac 

 tically impossible for either of the contending parties 

 to advance an army through its territory. A con 

 tinuation of the same wooded and mountainous dis 

 trict protected the northern parts of Vermont and 

 New Hampshire, while in New York the Adirondack 

 region was an impenetrable wilderness. It thus 

 came about that the. northern boundary was formed, 

 for military purposes, by Lake Huron, Lake Erie, the 

 Niagara, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence, and, after 

 an interval, by Lake Champlain. The road into the 

 States by the latter ran close along shore, and with 

 out a naval force the invader would be wholly un- 

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