Lawrence frontier. Both parties
early sought to get control of those waters, and the preparation of
armed vessels on them was vigorously begun.
An armistice was concluded by General Dearborn. This armistice enabled
Brock to concentrate forces at Detroit and compel Hull to surrender.
On the morning of the 13th of October, just after a heavy storm, Colonel
Soloman Van Rensselaer passed over the river near Lewiston with less
than three hundred men. They routed the British there, who fled toward
Lewiston pursued by Captain John E. Wool, who, though wounded, did not
relinquish the pursuit.
General Brock and his staff at Fort George hastened to the scene, but
were compelled to fly, not having time even to mount their horses. In a
few minutes, the American flag was waving over the fort.
Brock rallied his forces and, with fresh troops, pressed up the hill
after the Americans, but, after a terrible struggle, was driven back and
mortally wounded. General Sheaffe, who succeeded Brock, rallied the
troops. Only two hundred and forty Americans were on the heights.
Lieutenant-Colonel (afterward Major-General) Winfield Scott had passed
over the river to act as a volunteer. At request of General Wadsworth he
took active command. The Americans, reinforced to six hundred, were
assailed by a horde of Indians under John Brandt. Scott led a charge
against them and drove them to the woods; but overwhelming forces of
British poured in on the Americans, and Van Rensselaer, who had gone to
send over militia, found they would not cross the river, their excuse
being that they were not compelled to serve out of their own State.
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