hievement. All the officers
disapproved of the time and manner of the proposed embarkation, and
expressed their opinions freely. At General Porter's quarters a change
was agreed upon. Porter deferred the embarkation until Tuesday morning,
the 1st of December, an hour or two before daylight, and to make the
landing-place a little below the upper end of Grand Island. Winder
suggested the propriety of making a descent directly upon Chippewa, 'the
key of the country.' This Smyth consented to attempt, intending as he
said, if successful, to march down to Queenston, and lay siege to Fort
George. Orders were accordingly given for a general rendezvous at the
Navy Yard, at three o'clock on Tuesday morning, and that the troops
should be collected in the woods near by on Monday, where they should
build fires, and await the signal for gathering on the shore of the
river. The hour arrived, but when day dawned only fifteen hundred were
embarked. Tannehill's Pennsylvania Brigade were not present. Before
their arrival rumours had reached the camp that they, too, like Van
Rensellaer's militia at Lewiston, had raised a constitutional question
about being led out of their State. Yet their scruples seem to have been
overcome at this time, and they would have invaded Canada cheerfully
under other auspices. But distrust of their leader, created by the
events of the last forty-eight hours, had demoralized nearly the whole
army. They had made so much noise in embarkation that the startled
Canadian had sounded his alarm bugle and discharged signal guns from
Fort Erie to Chippewa. Tannehill's Pennsylvanians had not appeared, and
many other troops lingered upon the shore, loth to embark. In this
dilemma Smyth hastily called a Council of the regular officers, utterly
excluding those of the volunteers from the conference; and the first
intimation of the result of that Council was an order from the
commanding general, sent to General Porter, who was on a boat with the
pilot, a fourth of a mile from shore, in the van of the impatient
flotilla, _directing the whole army to debark, and repair to their
quarters_. This was accompanied by a declaration that the _invasion of
Canada was abandoned at present_, pleading in bar of just censure, that
his orders from his superiors were, not to attempt it with less than
3,000 men. The regulars were ordered into winter quarters, and the
volunteers were dismissed to their homes.

"The troops, without order or restr