Seeing the enemy in overwhelming force the naval men sank the schooner and then went to help the garrison of the fort. The attempt of the British to land on the day of their arrival was frustrated by a gale of wind, but on the 6th the fleet was placed to cover the landing and bombard the fort. The _Princess Charlotte_, of forty-two guns--twenty-six long twenty-fours, two long sixty-eights, and fourteen short thirty-twos; the _Montreal_, of seven long twenty-fours and eighteen long eighteens, and the _Niagara_, of two long twelves and twenty short thirty-twos, were placed to fire on the fort, which had only two long twenty-fours, one long twelve, and one long six in place to return the fire. The _Charwell_ and the _Star_, mounting two long twelves and fourteen short thirty-twos, were ordered to “scour the woods with grape and clear them of militia.” In addition, there were a number of gun-boats, but these amounted to nothing in the attack. [Illustration: _The Charwell covering the landing._ _The Princess Charlotte._ _The Star covering seamen and marines._ _Oswego Town._ _The Magnet._ _The Prince Regent._ _The Montreal._ _The Niagara._ The Attack on Fort Oswego, Lake Ontario, May 6, 1814. _From an engraving, published in 1815, by R. Havel, after a drawing of Lieutenant Hewett, Royal Marines._ ] When the four ships with their eighty-nine guns had begun to make the air vibrate around the fort, and the two brigs with their thirty-two guns were making the bark and branches fly from the trees of the forests round about, eight hundred British soldiers were landed under Lieutenant-Colonel Fischer, while two hundred sailors, armed with boarding-pikes, were sent along, under Captain Mulcaster. Covered by the fire of the four ships, mounting eighty-nine guns, and two brigs, mounting thirty-two guns, “the debarkation of the troops” was “very cleverly accomplished,” according to one author; and when this was done “the soldiers and seamen behaved with great gallantry and steadiness, their officers leading them, sword in hand, up a long, steep hill.” In short, by behaving “with great gallantry” this body of 1,000 men, supported by ships carrying one hundred and twenty-one guns, were able to drive Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell and almost three hundred soldiers and sailors away from his four guns! But in doing so they lost twenty-two killed and seventy-three wounded, including “the gallant Captain Mulcaster, dangerously.” These figures are from the report of the British Colonel Fischer. The _Montreal_ was “set on fire three times and much cut up in hull, masts; and rigging” by the fire of the two long twenty-fours of the fort, that were worked steadily in spite of the storm of iron fired from the British fleet. The Americans lost six killed, thirty-eight wounded, and twenty-five missing, both of these last falling into the enemy’s hands.”