The enemy, pursuing his advantages, pushed forwards a force of between 3,000 and 4,000 infantry and cavalry, with nine pieces of artillery, to attack the position which General Vincent occupied at Burlington. Previous, however, to their reaching that point, a well-concerted, daring, and spirited attack was made upon their camp in the night, by a party of General Vincent's force, and under his command, which proved completely successful as a surprise, and Generals Winder and Chandler, the two senior officers, together with 100 prisoners, and four field-pieces being taken, the enemy, after destroying their stores and provisions, &c. precipitately retreated, until they joined the main body of their army. While these operations were proceeding, the most active measures were taking at Kingston to fit out and equip a fleet which might be able to dispute with the enemy the temporary ascendancy which they had gained on the Lake; but whatever efforts might be made to construct vessels and prepare them for service, it must be obvious that no advantage could be derived from any number or description of vessels without officers and seamen. The only reinforcement which up to this period, the end of April, Sir George Prevost had been able to obtain from the Admiral commanding on the Halifax station, consisted of the three lieutenants, and four petty officers, whose arrival at Kingston has been already mentioned, and whose active services had very much accelerated the equipment of our squadron before Sir James Yeo took the command of it. Previous to the arrival of Sir George Prevost at that place in May, his extreme anxiety respecting the naval force preparing on both Lakes, had induced him, during the depth of winter, to proceed in the month of February, from the Lower Province to Kingston, York, and Fort George, where his presence must have essentially contributed to impart increased activity to the preparations then making for the opening of the next campaign. The zeal and energy thus displayed by him in his indefatigable endeavours to promote the public service, although justly appreciated by the inhabitants of both provinces, could not protect him from the unfounded accusations of the Reviewer,[46] who informs his readers that Sir George Prevost had excited the expectations of the Canadian public, "that he had designed an attack upon Sackett's Harbour, where the shipping was known to be very indifferently protected, by marching over the ice, which was stronger at that time than had been known for many years."--And that "the anxious inhabitants of the Provinces who had witnessed his previous inactivity, with gloomy foreboding, were again doomed to be disappointed." What the opinion of the inhabitants of the Provinces was, with regard to Sir George Prevost's "_previous inactivity_," has clearly been shewn from the different addresses presented to him at the period alluded to.