gadier-General for
previous gallantry in the field, and for distinguished success. Nay, he
brought him to a Court Martial. The Court found that he had not
retreated with judgment and had not judiciously disposed of his force,
considering the extraordinary difficulties of his situation; but it
further found that his personal conduct was neither defective nor
reproachable. He was sentenced to be suspended from rank and pay for
six months. George the Fourth, then Prince Regent, was still more
severe upon the unfortunate Proctor. He confirmed the sentence and
censured the Court for mistaken lenity.

There was this difference between Sir George Prevost and General
Proctor:--Prevost was excessively cautious: Proctor was incautious to
excess.

All Western Canada, with the exception of Michillimackinac, was now
lost to the British. The Americans had not only recaptured Michigan,
but the issue of one battle had given them a long lost territory, and
the garden of Upper Canada. Harrison did not move against
Michillimackinac, being persuaded that it would fall for want of
provisions, but went to Buffalo and from there went to Niagara and Fort
George, abandoned by General Vincent, who had fallen back, on hearing
of Proctor's discomfiture, on Burlington Heights. In retreating,
Vincent sent his baggage on before him, followed by the main body of
his army, some three or four thousand sickly men, and kept his picquets
in front of Fort George to deceive the enemy: seven companies of the
100th and the light company of the 8th regiment, and a few Indians,
more men than Proctor had altogether, constituted the rear guard, and
covered the retreat. The guard was closely pressed by 1,500 of the
enemy, under Generals McClure and Porter, from Fort George, but the
guard managed to keep them in check and enabled Vincent and Proctor to
effect a junction at the heights of Burlington. The rear guard halted
at Stoney Creek, but the enemy refused to give battle.

The result of these operations, in the northwest, so flattered the
Americans as to induce the government at Washington to attempt a more
effectual invasion of Canada. General Dearborn had been replaced, on
account of ill-health, in the chief command of the army of the north,
by General Wilkinson. The force intended for the contemplated invasion
of Canada amounted to twelve thousand men. There were eight thousand
stationed at Niagara and four thousand at Plattsburgh, commanded by
Hampton, in