The History of the United States

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 1813.] THE BRITISH COMMAND LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 33 attacked by the enemy, was also the victim of an Indian ambuscade. Thirteen were killed or wounded, and all but five of the remainder were made prisoners, and then inhumanly murdered by the Indians. It is said that some of them were scalped while they were yet alive. It was pretended, as an excuse for the Indians, that Eldridge had killed one of the chiefs of their tribe. These unwarranted cruelties induced General Boyd to take a party of the Seneca and Tuscarora Indians into the service of the United States, in the expectation that a fear of retaliation would prevent the recurrence of such atrocities. They soon after succeeded in bringing into camp twelve British Indians, and four white men, with the loss of only two of their own body. Early in July, the British made a successful attack on the village of Black Rock, then defended by militia, most of whom soon took to flight. The invading party set fire to the barracks, and other public buildings, spiked some cannon, and took off a considerable quantity of provisions. Various petty skirmishes and conflicts now took place on the margin of the lakes, with divided success, which scarcely deserve particular notice. Among them, however, were the capture of the two armed schooners, Growler and Eagle, by a squadron of British gunboats, after an engagement of three hours and a half, by which capture the enemy now had the undisputed command of Lake Champlain. The loss was very trifling on both sides. It is said that the British abused the power they thus possessed, in committing great depredations on the private property of the inhabitants; but excesses of this character, it would seem, from the frequency of the complaints of it, are not easily avoided, and may be set down as one of...