Sustained honor Part 28

Lieutenant-Colonel (afterward Major-General) Winfield Scott had pa.s.sed over the river to act as a volunteer. At request of General Wadsworth he took active command. The Americans, reinforced to six hundred, were a.s.sailed by a horde of Indians under John Brandt. Scott led a charge against them and drove them to the woods; but overwhelming forces of British poured in on the Americans, and Van Rensselaer, who had gone to send over militia, found they would not cross the river, their excuse being that they were not compelled to serve out of their own State.

Overwhelming numbers compelled the Americans to surrender. All the prisoners were marched to New Ark, where Scott came near having an encounter with two Indian chiefs.

On the 13th of October, 1812, the Americans lost, in killed, wounded and prisoners, about eleven hundred men. General Van Rensselaer left the service in disgust and was succeeded by Alexander Smythe of Virginia, who accomplished nothing of importance during the remainder of the season. The situation of the Americans at the close of 1812 was this: The army of the northwest was occupying a defensive position among the snows of the wilderness on the banks of the Maumee River; the army of the centre, under General Smythe, was resting on the defensive on the Niagara frontier, and the army of the north, under General Bloomfield, was also resting on the defensive at Plattsburgh.

So far, the advantages had been altogether with the enemy, who were no more gratified than the Peace Party, with their excellent excuse for saying, "I told you so!"

CHAPTER XIV.

FERNANDO SEES SERVICE.

The trump of war stirred two pa.s.sions in the heart of Fernando Stevens, revenge and patriotism. One was a n.o.ble and the other a very human but ign.o.ble pa.s.sion; but Fernando was only a common mortal with mortal weaknesses. When he reflected on the wrongs he had suffered; when he remembered the death of poor Boseley, slain to gratify the malice of Captain Snipes, and poor Sukey still the slave of the British monarch, he could not be other than revengeful.

"Mother," he said one day, shortly after they had heard of war. "I am going to enter the army."

The mother, who was plying her needle, sat for several moments in silence. She was not surprised at the declaration. For several days, she had watched her son with the care and anxiety of a mother. She had noted that he read the papers regularly. He pored over any news which hinted of war and was an eager listener to the latest rumor which his father brought from town. The parents had talked the matter over frequently, and Captain Stevens, himself a veteran, said:

"I can't blame him; no, I can't blame him. Poor boy, he has suffered enough to know the wrongs done to our flag."

"But would it be for the flag, or revenge?" said the mother.

"Both," answered the practical father. "He is only human, wife, and human hearts can't endure what he endured without human resentment."

The mother hoped it was more patriotism than revenge, for she was a Christian lady, and while war might be proper, even for Christian people, she thought it should be purely a conflict of principle and not of revenge.

"Fernando," said the mother laying aside her knitting and taking off her gla.s.ses and wiping them, "do you really mean to go?"

"Yes, mother. My country needs my services. There are thousands of unfortunate Americans, still in bondage. I seem to hear their pitiful cries calling on their country to send brave men to their rescue."

"I have expected this," sighed Mrs. Stevens, and tears gathered in her eyes.

"Mother, would you have me stay?"

It was hard for a mother to say it; but she had to do so. She was patriotic, and she answered:

"No."

"Then I will go."

"When?"

"They are beating up for volunteers at town, and I am going there to enlist in a day or two. First I must help father drain the flat and clear off a few timber patches."

It soon became rumored all over the neighborhood that Fernando was going to enlist. Many friends came to see him, bid him good-by and wish him G.o.d-speed. The day before he went away, he was chopping wood, when he saw a large man riding a large bay mare followed by a large colt, cross the old bridge a few hundred paces below and ascend the hill toward the house. The visitor was Mr. Winners. He had grown older and stouter, and the mare was older and heavier, and this was her fourth colt since he had come over to talk with his neighbor about sending his son to college with Fernando. The kind, good face of the old farmer expressed sadness, and his eye, always dull, seemed melancholy.

He rode slowly up the hill to where Fernando was chopping wood. Fernando saw him coming and laid down his axe, for it was quite evident that Mr.

Winners wanted to speak with him. The old man, drawing rein close by Fernando, said:

"Mornin', Fernando, how's all?"

"We are all well, Mr. Winners. How are yourself and family?"

"Oh, we are just middlin' like."

"Won't you alight and come into the house?"

"No; I ain't got time, Fernando. I just came to see you, that's all.

Fernando, I hear as how you're goin' t' ther war."

"I am, Mr. Winners. I am a young man with no wife or children. My country just now stands in need of young men."

"Ya-as, it does, an' I don't come t' blame ye for it,--mind ye, I don't blame ye fur it. I'm sometimes tempted to go myself, old as I am."

"No, no, Mr. Winners, there is no occasion. Let the younger men do the service."

"I don't blame ye, for goin', Fernando; but I hope ye won't furgit one thing."

"What?"

"My Sukey's on t'other side. Now that fightin's begun, he'll have to light his own flag; but he won't do it with a very good grace, lem me tell ye. No, he won't. Now, Fernando, I don't want to ask ye to ease down on the British a bit; but when ye come to the crowd that Sukey's with, won't ye kind a shoot easy?"

Fernando promised to do all he could to aid Sukey to escape, and a.s.sured him that, when once he was free, the cruel masters should pay for their tyranny. The old man seemed partially satisfied, and, as he rode away, he twisted himself half way round in the saddle to say:

"Now, Fernando, if ye meet Sukey's crowd, I want ye to remember to shoot easy."

"I will not harm Sukey, if I can help it," Fernando answered. Next morning, he bade his parents farewell and, with his clothes tied up in a little bundle, set out on his way to the town.

A flag was streaming from a long pole, and Fernando heard the roll of the drum and the shrill notes of a fife. The company was more than half made up when he arrived. He enlisted at once and four days later the company was ready to march.

As yet the armies of the United States were not organized, and for some time Captain George Rose was at a loss what to do with his volunteers.

They were riflemen, ready for any detached service to which they might be a.s.signed. The militia forces raised were, of course, to serve in their own respective States; but the volunteers were allowed to attach to any regiment they chose. For some time, it was doubtful whether Captain Rose would be sent West under Hull and Harrison, or to the North to act under General Jacob Brown.

The latter course was at last decided upon, and they hurried to the northern frontier of New York. But small preparations had been made for the defence of this portion of the frontier. From Oswego to Lake St.

Francis, an expansion of the St. Lawrence, General Brown's forces were scattered. The length of this territory was about two hundred miles.

There was only one American war-vessel (the _Oneida_) on Lake Ontario.

This was commanded by Lieutenant Melancthon Woolsey; while the British, in antic.i.p.ation of difficulties, had built at Kingston, at the foot of the lake, a small squadron of light vessels-of-war. Brown and Woolsey were authorized to defend the frontier from invasion, but not to act on the offensive except in certain emergencies.

About the 20th of July, Fernando's company joined the regiment of Colonel Bellinger at Sackett's Harbor, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Nine days later, the British squadron composed of the _Royal George_, 24 guns, _Prince Regent_, 22 guns, _Earl of Moira_, 20 guns, _Simcoe_, 12 guns, and _Seneca_, 4 guns, appeared and bore down on the American forces there. Fernando was sleeping when the discovery was made, but was soon roused and saw soldiers hauling in the _Oneida_ so as to lay her broadside to the approaching enemy. Colonel Bellinger's militia were many of them raw recruits, and the approach of a fleet unnerved a few of them; but the majority were cool as veterans.

"Take that thirty-two pound gun up on the bluff," commanded the colonel, pointing out an old iron cannon down by the sh.o.r.e.

Fernando a.s.sisted them to drag it to the rocky bluff, and the whole battery was placed in charge of Captain Vaughn, a sailing master in the navy. Slowly the fleet bore in, the _Royal George_, having the heaviest guns, coming ahead of the others. A wreath of smoke curled up from her forecastle, and a ball, skipping over the water, struck the sandy beach.

Captain Rose and his company of riflemen took up their station on the high bluff, where, should the troops attempt to land, they might do effective work. Fernando had been promoted to sergeant in the company and was quite popular with both officers and men.

For two hours, a cannonade between the _Royal George_ and the big guns on sh.o.r.e was kept up, with very little effect, when a 32 pound ball from the former came over the bluff and ploughed a furrow near where the riflemen were standing. Fernando ran and caught up the ball and, running with it to Captain Vaughn, said: