ts defence
most energetically at the first declaration of war. It was a work that
taxed to the utmost the resources of the young country. The shores of
the lakes as far west as Detroit were open to the attacks of the
enemy, and, although part of the territory of the United States, were
really more accessible to the invaders than to the American defenders.
The population was sparse, and the means of transportation very
primitive. Before the days of railroads, canals, or even well-kept
turnpikes, troops, seamen, ordnance, and all munitions of war could
only be transported from the cities on the seacoast by the most
laborious hauling over roads hardly worthy of the name. Nor was the
transportation problem solved during the continuance of the war. When
in May, 1814, the new United States frigate "Superior" lay at her dock
at Sackett's Harbor, her ordnance, stores, and cordage had to be
brought from Oswego Falls, some fifty miles away. A clear water-route
by the Oswego River and the lake offered itself; but Sir James Yeo,
with his squadron, was blockading the mouth of the harbor, and the
chance for blockade-runners was small indeed. To carry the heavy
ordnance and cables overland, was out of the question. The dilemma was
most perplexing, but Yankee ingenuity finally enabled the "Superior"
to get her outfit. The equipment was loaded upon a small fleet of
barges and scows, which a veteran lake captain took to a point sixteen
miles from the blockaded harbor. By sailing by night, and skulking up
creeks and inland water-ways, the transports reached this point
without attracting the attention of the blockading fleet. They had,
however, hardly arrived when news of the enterprise came to the ears
of the British, and an expedition was sent to intercept the Americans,
which expedition the Yankees successfully resisted. The question then
arose as to how the stores were to be taken across the sixteen miles
of marsh and forest that lay between the boats and the navy-yard at
Sackett's Harbor. The cannon and lighter stores were transported on
heavy carts with great difficulty, but there still remained the great
cable. How to move this was a serious question. No cart could bear its
ponderous weight of ninety-six hundred pounds. Again Yankee ingenuity
and pluck came to the rescue. Two hundred men volunteered to carry the
great rope on their shoulders, and in this way it actually was
transported. Along the shore of the little creek the great c