The savagery of this warfare is explained by the fact that the Creeks were not fighting for any cause of their own, real or pretended, but only as mercenaries of the English. In a letter written at this time, Jackson said: "While we fight the savage, who makes war only because he delights in blood, and who has gotten his booty when he has scalped his victim, we are, through him, contending against an enemy of more inveterate character and deeper design. So far as my exertions can contribute, the purposes, both of the savage and his instigator, shall be defeated." By these battles, the power of the Creeks was completely broken. Jackson compelled the remnant of the tribe to move north, and that summer they were fed by the Government. CHAPTER XIV. BROWN'S CAMPAIGN ON THE NIAGARA. {231} _The March to Buffalo--Capture of Fort Erie--Battle of Chippewa--Brown's Plans--Battle of Lundy's Lane--Siege of Fort Erie by the British._ |Colonel Winfield Scott, who after the failure of Wilkinson's expedition had spent a large part of the winter at Albany, arranging with Governor Tompkins the plans for the opening year, was made a brigadier-general in March, and with General Brown put the army at Plattsburg in motion for the Niagara frontier. Brown soon went to Sackett's Harbor, leaving Scott to conduct the long march alone. After passing Utica, the route lay largely through a wilderness. Where now stands Rochester, a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants, there was then but a single log house, and the scenery about the Genesee Falls, now closely hemmed in with tall buildings, was picturesque with forests and lively with rattlesnakes. The army that assembled at Buffalo consisted of Scott's and Ripley's brigades of regulars, Porter's brigade of militia, and Hindman's battalion of reg{232}ular artillery. A camp of instruction was formed at once, the modern French system being adopted, and for three months drilling went on every day with the most rigid regularity. The commanding General drilled the officers in squads, and they in turn drilled the men; after which came company and battalion drills, and finally evolutions in line. It is said that Scott had but a single copy of the French work on tactics, on which all his instruction was based, and this had to be explained to the officers individually, most of whom were not able to read French. Late in June, General Brown reached Buffalo, and a campaign across the river was planned at once. Early in the morning of July 3d the troops of Scott and Hindman crossed the Niagara from Black Rock, landing below Fort Erie, while Ripley's crossed a little later and landed above the fort. The work was invested, and after the exchange of a few shots, by which four Americans and one man of the garrison were killed, it surrendered. A hundred and seventy men were made prisoners and sent across the river.