Sackets Harbor

Background

By the war's opening weeks, British forces held sway over the Great Lakes. Captain Isaac Chauncey of the U.S. Navy received orders in September 1812 to take charge of naval operations on Lakes Ontario and Erie, with instructions to secure dominance over them before the season's end. Within a mere three weeks, he had gathered and delivered 149 ships' carpenters, 700 seamen and marines, roughly 100 cannon, and substantial stores of muskets and other equipment to Sacket's Harbor, a modest existing navy yard on Lake Ontario.

As the 1813 campaign season began, American land forces along the border had massed at Sacket's Harbor. Chauncey's fleet now outmatched the British and Canadian squadron based at Kingston, while Major General Henry Dearborn's troops could overwhelm the British wherever they chose to strike along the thinly stretched frontier. A genuine opening existed for the Americans to seize Kingston outright, a move that would have wiped out the British naval presence and possibly opened the door to claiming nearly all of Upper Canada.

Instead, Dearborn and Chauncey overestimated the strength of British regulars garrisoned at Kingston. They turned their attention toward York, the seat of provincial government in Upper Canada, situated at the lake's far end. The assault came on April 27, resulting in an American victory at York, followed by a brief occupation during which the town was plundered. Afterward, the Americans pulled back to Fort Niagara, positioned near where the Niagara River meets the lake, readying themselves to strike Fort George across the water.

Meanwhile, toward the close of 1812, the Admiralty had placed Captain James Lucas Yeo in charge of British naval strength on the Great Lakes. Yeo reached Quebec on May 5, 1813, then traveled up the Saint Lawrence toward Kingston accompanied by 150 naval officers and sailors. Along the route he caught up with and joined Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada, who was making his own way to the same destination. For Prevost, this marked a second trip to Upper Canada within four months, driven by his belief that Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe would likely need replacing, given that Sheaffe's defeat at York had cost him the Provincial Assembly's confidence.

Both men reached Kingston together on May 15. Prevost busied himself reorganizing his command structure and bolstering the spirits of the militia and local officials, while Yeo pushed forward completion of the new sloop-of-war Wolfe alongside refitting work on several other armed ships. A great deal of that groundwork had already been laid by three commanders, Robert Heriot Barclay, Robert Finnis, and Daniel Pring, sent from the naval station at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both Prevost and Yeo understood that once the Wolfe entered service, their squadron would hold a narrow edge over Chauncey's forces, yet they also knew the Americans were constructing the General Pike, a 28 gun heavy sloop, at Sackett's Harbor, a vessel poised to swing the balance back in Chauncey's favor.

On May 25, lookouts spotted Chauncey's squadron near Fort George. Brigadier General John Vincent, commanding British forces there, quickly dispatched a vessel to carry word to Kingston, though two days later his position would fall with heavy casualties in the Battle of Fort George. Once Yeo and Prevost learned that Chauncey had appeared off Fort George, they grasped that both the American fleet and Dearborn's army would likely remain tied down there for some time. This presented a rare chance to strike at Sacket's Harbor itself and inflict crippling damage on its shipyard, potentially securing lasting British control of the lake.

Later events

Even after General Pike had gone into the water, Yeo did not abandon the idea of finishing her off while she sat at Sackett's Harbor completing her fitting out and awaiting replacement supplies for what had been ruined on 29 May. His plan called for a surprise strike launched from boats in the darkness before dawn on 1 July, but daylight came before his men reached their target, forcing them to pull back to the north shore of Blackwater Creek. As the hours passed, several sailors and marines slipped away and deserted, and Yeo abandoned the scheme altogether, worried, rightly as it turned out, that those who had fled would warn the Americans of his plans.

The struggle for dominance on and around Lake Ontario then settled into a standoff lasting months, broken only when General Pike inflicted serious damage on Yeo's flagship Wolfe during a clash off York on 28 September. Forced back into Burlington Bay, Yeo effectively surrendered command of the lake to his opponents for what remained of that year.

Analysis

Judged against the American successes at York and Fort George, the failed British assault on Sacket's Harbor stands out as a poor showing, even though the defenders there held only a slightly stronger hand than at those other engagements. The likeliest explanation lies in how hastily the operation came together, with little groundwork laid beforehand and almost no rehearsal. Rather than a cohesive force, the attacking troops amounted to scattered detachments thrown together without ever training as a unit. The American regulars faced a similar problem, but fighting from behind established works made the lack of cohesion less costly for them.

Prevost's own record offered little reassurance. He had overseen an opposed landing at Martinique back in 1809, yet even there he stayed removed from direct command, handing that responsibility to another officer, Brigadier General Daniel Hoghton, much as he would later do at Sacket's Harbor. His caution would become a recognized trait in engagements that followed. Colonel Baynes, given command in Prevost's stead during the Sacket's Harbor operation, had rarely if ever led men in actual combat throughout his career. Yeo, for his part, carried a reputation as an aggressive captain built on experience leading landing parties, but he remained unfamiliar with this command and with the particular demands of the lake. On 28 May he chose to hold most of his warships back in deep water. The next day, when he moved ashore to stay near the action, the larger British ships seem to have been left without direction, and only Beresford made any serious attempt to act.

Results

The vessel General Pike survived the attempt to destroy it, mostly because its timber, still green from recent construction, refused to catch properly, allowing American crews to save the ship despite the flames Acting Lieutenant Drury had set. Those same fires still managed to wipe out stores and construction materials worth $500,000, a loss that would hamper American operations later that year. Also lost was the brig Duke of Gloucester, captured earlier as a prize at York, though its poor condition meant its destruction cost the Americans little.

Word of the British strike prompted Commodore Chauncey to pull his whole squadron back to Sacket's Harbor, keeping it there until work on General Pike was finished. This left American forces on the Niagara peninsula exposed and unsupported. Already having suffered a setback at the Battle of Stoney Creek, these troops now found their exposed flank along the lake struck by Yeo, who seized tents, provision boats, and vast stores of supplies, ultimately pushing the Americans back toward Fort George.

In recognition of his role in defending Sacket's Harbor, Jacob Brown received a regular commission as Brigadier General within the United States Army. For the British, the failed assault dealt a serious blow to Prevost's standing, though he continued to hold command in Canada for another eighteen months. It was only his later defeat at the Battle of Plattsburgh that would truly destroy his reputation for good.