Salmon River Raid (1814) was a Early Republic and War of 1812 engagement fought in New York, 1814. It was a British victory.
In February 1814, British troops struck American positions that had just been left behind along the Salmon River, close to French Mills, New York, in what became known as the Salmon River Raid. This was not the first time French Mills had seen conflict, as an earlier raid and battle had already taken place there in 1812.
In February 1814, British troops struck American positions that had just been left behind along the Salmon River, close to French Mills, New York, in what became known as the Salmon River Raid. This was not the first time French Mills had seen conflict, as an earlier raid and battle had already taken place there in 1812.
Nerves ran high among Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Morrison's British troops along the St. Lawrence front, a lingering effect of the American victory on November 11 and the enemy's withdrawal from Cornwall on November 13. Gen. Jacob Brown's American command had settled into winter quarters near Malone and French Mills along the Salmon River, though by early February 1814 they started pulling back toward Plattsburgh to link up with the remainder of James Wilkinson's Army.
Stationed around Cornwall, Morrison's force drew on regulars from the Canadian Fencibles alongside the 89th and 103rd Regiments of Foot, supplemented by militiamen from the area and native warriors. Together they settled on a plan to strike the American winter camps in New York through a series of raids.
That February had already seen Capt. Reuben Sherwood carry out a raid on Madrid, coming away with a substantial haul of American supplies. This success persuaded Morrison that the moment had come to attempt something larger in scale.
On February 14, 1814, Colonel Hercules Scott's modest body of Regulars seized supplies from French Mills, yet it became clear that far greater stores lay unclaimed after Brown's American army withdrew. Five days later, on the 19th, more than 1200 British troops marched out of Cornwall toward the Salmon River to strip the area of anything useful. Farms at Dundas and Stormont had their sleighs commandeered for the effort, and the column crossed the frozen surface of the St. Lawrence into New York territory.
While a body of Militia peeled off toward Four Corners, the principal force under Scott and Morrison reached Malone that same evening and spent time combing the surrounding countryside for weapons and provisions abandoned by Wilkinson's troops. Two days were spent in the area, during which several public buildings were burned, though the British apparently dealt gently with the residents overall. After gathering what supplies they needed, the men pushed onward toward French Mills. Meanwhile, the Militia detachment reached Four Corners early on the morning of the 20th and stumbled upon a substantial stockpile there, somewhere between 150 and 200 barrels containing flour, beef, pork, and whiskey. At a nearby tavern, thirty-two civilian teamsters were seized along with their sleds and teams, all pressed into hauling the goods northward into Canada. Once the militia joined up with their prisoners, they set fire to bridges as they moved to link with the main column, and part of the force pushed all the way to the Marble River to keep any warning from reaching Plattsburgh, where Wilkinson's army waited.
Word reached Scott of considerable flour reserves at Hopkinton, prompting him to hold off departing French Mills until that supply could be secured. A separate small party of regulars and militiamen handled this task, though they lacked sufficient transport for the entire cache. Only half the flour, along with a modest number of muskets, could be carried away; the townspeople received a portion of the remaining 150 barrels, and the rest was simply destroyed.
By February 23, Scott and Morrison had made their way back to Cornwall with the seized goods, arriving at Summerstown as evening fell. The only mishap along the entire operation came when one sleigh, its team, and its load broke through the ice and were lost to the river. The following day, February 24, the recovered supplies were unloaded at the government storehouse in Cornwall.
The operation ended in decisive triumph for the British side, stripping American forces of much-needed arms and provisions while strengthening the defenses along the St. Lawrence front. It marked the final military engagement conducted along that front in Upper Canada.
Across the two expeditions, seventy British soldiers abandoned their posts, with the bulk of these desertions coming from Col. Scott's 103rd Regiment of Foot.
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