by the old Lake Champlain route that
Sir George Prevost began his invasion of New York in September, 1814.
His objective was Plattsburg, where an American army of not more than
two thousand men was stationed. Accompanying his army, to insure its
line of communication with Canada, was a fleet consisting of a frigate,
a brig, and a dozen smaller vessels. To this fleet, Captain Thomas
Macdonough could oppose only a corvette and a dozen small craft. The
fleets met in a battle for the control of the lake on September 11. The
resourcefulness of the young American officer saved the day. By winding
his corvette, the Saratoga, about, so as to bring her unused guns to
bear just when the fight seemed lost, he forced the formidable Confiance
to strike her colors. The surrender of the smaller British boats
followed. The battle of Plattsburg was decisive of the invasion. Fearing
greater disasters if he pressed on without the control of the waterway
at his rear, Prevost at once ordered a retreat.

The expedition directed toward Chesapeake Bay was well under way before
Prevost's ill-starred invasion began. On August 19, General Ross landed
his forces on the banks of Patuxent River, within striking distance of
Washington. Marching leisurely across country toward the capital, the
British finally met at Bladensburg a motley array of some seven thousand
Americans, hastily summoned from the countryside. What followed is not
easily described. Some show of resistance was made by the marines from
the American gunboats in the Patuxent; but for the most part the
Americans were seized with a panic and fled in wild disorder. The
President and his Cabinet took to the Virginia woods, leaving the enemy
to wreak their vengeance on the government buildings. Having fired the
Capitol, the White House, and other edifices, the British forces
returned to their fleet and reembarked. The historian can take no
pleasure in dwelling upon details which are discreditable to all
concerned; for if the British committed acts of vandalism, the Americans
had provoked retaliation when they burned the parliament houses at York
in the campaign of 1813.

An attack upon Baltimore which might have resulted in further outrages
was frustrated by the measures of defense which the government of the
city had already wisely undertaken. After a skirmish in which General
Ross was killed, and an ineffective bombardment of the harbor defenses,
the British withdrew.

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