A simultaneous attack on
Plattsburgh by Provost miscarried by failure of the fleet and panic of
the soldiers. On the 17th, a sortie was made from Fort Erie, and the
British works were surprised and taken with a loss of one thousand to
the enemy.
The New England coast, which had, in the early part of the war, been
exempt from the ravages of the English, was now threatened. England came
to the conclusion that the New Englanders were blinding them with
professions of friendship, in order to preserve their own peace and
prosperity. Despite their professed objections to the war, New England
continually sent volunteers to the aid of the country's cause. The
British attacked various points on the New England coast. At Stonington,
on August 9, 1814, they were repulsed. Though Boston was threatened, it
was not bombarded.
Fernando Stevens with over one hundred men reached Philadelphia, where
he found two regiments of regulars marching to Washington. He
accompanied them. The second day's march from Philadelphia, they were
overtaken by two mounted men dressed in citizen's clothes, who inquired
for Captain Stevens. They proved to be Sukey and Terrence.
"I've been runnin' all over creation looking for you," Sukey declared.
"How can you skip from one side o' the earth to the other as easily as a
flea can cross a hammock? I went within sixty miles of Fort Erie the day
after the fight,--lost you;--heard you were in New York,--went after
you,--lost you; heard you were in Philadelphia,--went there,--lost you
and found Terrence.
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