The next day the fleet returned to the attack, and this time succeeded in landing about two thousand men. Colonel Mitchell, who had been reenforced by a small body of militia, gradually retired before the invaders, making a gallant resistance as long as it was of any use, and then retreated to a point several miles up the river, whither most of {255}the stores had been removed, and destroyed the bridges behind him. The enemy raised and carried away the schooner _Growler_, which, as it contained some of the guns for the new vessel, the Americans had sunk on the approach of the expedition; burned the barracks, took whatever he could find that was movable, and on the 7th sailed away. The action had cost him two hundred and thirty-five men, killed, wounded, or drowned. The Americans had lost sixty-nine. Five days later a British squadron appeared before Charlotte, at the mouth of Genesee River. The village was guarded by sixty men, with one field-piece. Word was sent to General Peter B. Porter, who arrived on the morning of the 13th, just in time to refuse a demand for the surrender of the place. Two gunboats then entered the river and bombarded the town for an hour and a half, throwing in shells, rockets, and round shot. The women and children were removed, a militia force of three hundred and fifty men was collected, and dispositions were made to capture the boats if they should venture farther up the river. A second demand for a surrender, with a threat to land twelve hundred men and destroy the village, was refused by Porter, and on the 15th the boats bombarded the place again for some hours, and then withdrew. {256}In the evening the squadron sent a force on shore at Poultneyville, where some stores were captured; but a small body of militia under General John Swift soon appeared and drove the enemy precipitately back to their boats.