raids along the length of the Niagara River in
retaliation for the burning of Newark, Upper
Canada. In short order, Black Rock and Buf-
falo were reduced to ashes, and British con-
trol of the Niagara frontier was firmly reestab-
lished. Drummond next sought to maintain
the strategic initiative by hitting Presque Isle
(Erie), Pennsylvania, where the Americans’
Lake Erie fleet was frozen in place, but the
onset of warm weather thwarted his ambi-
tions. By February 1814, he finally felt at
leisure to return to York (Toronto) to convene
a session of the provincial legislature. He en-
joyed better luck than Gen. Isaac Brockin
having the writ of habeas corpus suspended
as a wartime expedient to suppress collabora-
tion with the enemy. This, in turn, led to the
largest civil trial for treason in Canadian his-
tory, with 15 defendants being tried and eight
ultimately hanged.
But an even more pressing issue before
Drummond was the question of food. Previ-
ously, the general had warned Prevost that
Upper Canada might have to be abandoned
simply to prevent the troops from starving!
His supply situation remained poor because
farmers refused to sell products to the army,
and Drummond, like de Rottenburg before
him, felt obliged to impose martial law as a
final recourse. It was an unpopular move po-
litically, but it did allow the military to obtain
the necessary goods at fixed prices. Hence, a
supply crisis, long neglected, was averted.
With the military, political, and supply situ-
ations in hand, Drummond relocated to
Kingston to confer with Commodore Sir
James Lucas Yeo, commanding the Lake On-
tario squadron. Both men believed that
British control of Lake Ontario was ab-
solutely essential for the preservation of
Upper Canada, and they desired to attack
Sackets Harbor, home of the American fleet.
However, the governor-general felt the strat-
egy too risky and declined to send reinforce-
ments. Drummond and Yeo then rummaged
about for an easier target, and on May 5, 1813,
their combined forces stormed Oswego, New
York, stoutly defended by the Third U.S. Ar-
tillery under Lt. Col. George E. Mitchell. This
well-conceived and -executed preemptive
strike failed to seize the heavy cannons and
other naval supplies intended for Commodore
Isaac Chauncey’s ships, but it did upset his
ship construction timetable by several weeks.
Drummond and Yeo then both repaired to
Kingston to await the outcome of events on
the American side. Canada was undergoing a
surge of confidence it had not experienced
since the heady days of Isaac Brock.
In July 1814, the campaign season com-
menced when troops under American Gen.
Jacob Brown crossed the Niagara River and
captured Fort Erie. Unlike previous American
invasions, in which soldiers and generals
alike were ill-trained and bordering on ama-
teurish, his Left Division was disciplined and
had been placed in a high state of readiness
by Gen. Winfield Scott. On July 5, Scott’s
brigade met and soundly defeated Riall’s
troops at the Battle of Chippawa, the first
American victory over British troops on an
open plain. Riall then retreated to Fort
George, with Brown in hot pursuit. The Amer-
icans subsequently waited near the mouth of
the Niagara River in the hopes that Com-
modore Chauncey would deliver men and
supplies. Two weeks lapsed before Brown re-
alized Chauncey was not coming, and he sul-
lenly fell back upon Chippawa. Drummond,
meanwhile, collected numerous men and sup-
plies, sailed from York, and arrived at Fort
George on July 24, 1814. He fully planned to
drive down the peninsula and give battle to
Brown once various elements of his army,
scattered throughout Niagara, had been
united. To divert American attention, on July
25 he dispatched a raid from captured Fort
Niagara down the American side of the river.
As it turns out, neither side was seeking a de-
cisive engagement on that sultry July day.
Brown’s forces were resting at Chippawa
in anticipation of a sudden advance upon
Burlington Heights, which would cut off the
peninsula. However, when news of the British
raid arrived, he surmised that the British were
actually intending to attack his main supplyDRUMMOND, GORDON