The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day, 1775-1897, vol. 3 (of 4)Spears, John Randolph
History
The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day, 1775-1897, vol. 3 (of 4)
Spears, John Randolph
United States. Navy -- History; United States. Navy -- History -- Spanish-American War, 1898
Meantime the spreading of the news of the British invasion brought
reinforcements a-plenty to the Americans--one hundred and twenty
riflemen, under Major Appling; a battery of two six-pounders, under
Captain George Melvin; a troop of cavalry, under Captain Harris; sixty
Oneida Indians, and “some infantry.” Under Woolsey’s orders, the one
hundred and twenty riflemen and the sixty Indians were placed in the
bush near the first bend in the creek reached in coming up-stream from
the lake, while the remainder of the forces took post near the flotilla
of transports, to make a fight in case the ambush failed. But the
ambush did not fail.
On the morning of the 30th the British rowed into the creek. “In the
door of a fisherman’s house (yet standing when I visited the spot in
1860) Popham saw a woman, and ordered her to have breakfast ready for
himself and officers when they should return. She knew how well Woolsey
was prepared to receive his pursuers, and said, significantly:
“‘You’ll find breakfast ready up the creek.’”
So says Lossing. “The British passed on in jolly mood up the
creek”--they were jolly until they had arrived within a short distance
of the first bend in the creek. Here the Yankee transports were
first seen, some distance above, and the British opened fire on the
transports with solid shot, while grape and canister were fired into
the brush on both sides of the creek. Having by the grape-discharges
cleared the brush, as they supposed, the British landed a flanking
party on each side of the creek, and these started marching up while
the boats continued firing solid shot at the Yankee transports.
The opportunity of the Americans had now come, and “so furious and
unexpected was the assault on front, flank, and rear that the British
surrendered within ten minutes.” The British “force was captured with
hardly any resistance.” This seems the more remarkable when it is known
that the sixty Oneida Indians had been frightened away by the grape of
the British and the fight was made by Appling’s one hundred and twenty
riflemen only. Captain Popham, commanding the British forces, reported
eighteen of his men killed and fifty dangerously wounded; but Appling
reported only fourteen British killed and twenty-eight wounded. This
discrepancy is noteworthy; it is a right lonesome discrepancy, because
rarely have the British acknowledged a greater loss than that the
Americans credited them with.
The Americans had one man and one Indian slightly wounded. The number
of British captured was one hundred and thirty-three aside from the
wounded. The advantage of this victory, of course, far outweighed the
loss of the one transport that led to the invasion.
This blow disheartened Sir James Yeo so much that on June 6th he raised
the blockade of Sackett’s Harbor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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