OLD HOMESTEAD 



mostly had nothing but sticks over their shoulders. At the first 

 fire of the British, who were down at Horse Island, the most of 

 the militia, under the redoubtable General Brown, got up and 

 fled towards the town, inflicting no damage whatever upon their 

 opponents, who marched on till they met the little band of 

 regulars and better organized and disciplined militia who were 

 nearer town and made a creditable stand, thereby turning the 

 British back to their ships. 



When in his ninetieth year, and a short time before he died, 

 while visiting me at Oswego, I asked him to write a memo- 

 randum of his service, more particularly as to the carrying of 

 the cable from Sandy Creek to Sacketts Harbor on men's shoul- 

 ders, for the famous old battleship New Orleans, then building. 

 He did so in the following words : 



'' Statement made by Silas Lyman of service rendered in the 

 War of 1812 with Great Britain, in Captain Elisha Allen's com- 

 pany. Fifty-fifth Regiment New York Militia, commanded by 

 Colonel Clark Allen: Our regiment was armed and equipped 

 with government arms and ammunition and held as minute-men, 

 and were called out at different times to places on the lake shore. 

 I was at the battle of Sacketts Harbor and at the rescue of prop- 

 erty, including guns and equipment for ships at Sacketts Har- 

 bor, and at the landing of Sandy Creek in Ellisburgh — in all, 

 sixty or more days. Our company had no other record than 

 the name of turning out promptly at every call. At Sandy 

 Creek, a cable, weighing ninety-six hundred weight, three 

 quarters and twenty-six pounds, was so heavy that it could not 

 be carried on a wagon. It was the last of the property to be 

 carried by land eighteen miles to Sacketts Harbor. Eighty- 

 four men took it up and carried it three miles, about one hun- 



21 



