ch when
they found they could no longer hold their position. This battle was
fought April 27, 1813. One month later, the naval forces co-operated
with the soldiery in driving the British from Fort George, on the
Canada side of the Niagara River, near Lake Ontario. Perry came from
Lake Erie to take part in this action, and led a landing party under
the fire of the British artillery with that dashing courage which he
showed later at the battle of Put-in-Bay. The work of the sailors in
this action was cool and effective. Their fire covered the advance of
the troops, and silenced more than one of the enemy's guns. "The
American ships," writes a British historian, "with their heavy
discharges of round and grape, too well succeeded in thinning the
British ranks."

But by this time the British fleet was ready for sea, and left
Kingston on the 27th of May; while Chauncey was still at the extreme
western end of the lake. The enemy determined to make an immediate
assault upon Sackett's Harbor, and there destroy the corvette "Gen.
Pike," which, if completed, would give Chauncey supremacy upon the
lake. Accordingly the fleet under Sir James Lucas Yeo, with a large
body of troops under Sir George Prescott, appeared before the harbor
on the 29th. Although the forces which rallied to the defence of the
village were chiefly raw militia, the British attack was conducted
with so little spirit that the defenders won the day; and the enemy
retreated, leaving most of his wounded to fall into the hands of the
Americans. Yeo then returned to Kingston; and the American fleet came
up the lake, and put into Sackett's Harbor, there to remain until the
completion of the "Pike" should give Chauncey control of the lake.
While the Americans thus remained in port, the British squadron made
brief incursions into the lake, capturing a few schooners and breaking
up one or two encampments of the land forces of the United States.

Not until the 21st of July did the Americans leave their anchorage. On
that day, with the formidable corvette "Pike" at the head of the
line, Chauncey left Sackett's Harbor, and went up to Niagara. Some
days later, Yeo took his squadron to sea; and on the 7th of August the
two hostile fleets came in sight of one another for the first time.
Then followed a season of manoeuvring,--of challenging and
counter-challenging, of offering battle and of avoiding
it,--terminating in so inconclusive an engagement that one is forced
to bel