War of 1812, Part 10: The Battle of Sackett’s Harbor

The New Nation
Written By Tom Hand

In May 1813, General Henry Dearborn pulled most of the soldiers from Sackett’s Harbor for his invasion of the Niagara frontier. With the post now lightly defended, Sir George Prevost, governor-general of Canada, felt it was an opportune time for the British to strike the main American naval yard on Lake Ontario. By the time the British came ashore the morning of May 29, there were 1,400 Americans, both regulars and volunteers, under the command of Jacob Brown, a New York state militia general who would become one of the country’s most capable officers during the war. The Americans stood firm against repeated British assaults, and with adverse winds keeping British warships too distant from shore to support the attack, Prevost ordered a withdrawal from Sackett’s Harbor rather than press the fight any further.

Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses the Battle of Sackett’s Harbor and why it still matters today. 

 

Images courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, Library of Congress, World History Encyclopedia, U.S. Army, National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution, Naval History and Heritage Command, New York Public Library, Brown University Library, Wikimedia. 

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While General Henry Dearborn was trying to make headway along the Niagara front, the British were busy launching an offensive of their own against Sackett’s Harbor. This was not the first British attack on the American outpost, as the previous summer, on July 19, a British fleet had attempted to destroy Sackett’s Harbor’s critical navy yard, but the British were repulsed in that attack which marked the first armed engagement in the War of 1812.

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In early May 1813, Commodore Isaac Chauncey loaded General Henry Dearborn’s army onto his waiting ships and sailed back across Lake Ontario for the second phase of Dearborn’s campaign, the capture of Fort George. Between the men stationed at Fort Niagara and Dearborn’s contingent, the American force consisted of roughly 4,000 men, with command of the army falling to 26-year-old Colonel Winfield Scott, destined to be one of the great military commanders in American history.

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Tom Hand
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War of 1812, Part 9: An Opportunity Lost for the Americans