e rank of
Brigadier-General, in reward for his successful gallantry.

[20] Alison mixes up Colonel McDonell's capture of Ogdensburgh,
which is below Kingston, and opposite Prescott, the scene of the
Wind Mill fight in '37.

As if to counterbalance the effect of this success, another naval
engagement occurred at sea, on the 14th of February, between the
British sloop of war _Peacock_ and the American brig _Hornet_. The
fight was long continued, bloody and destructive. The _Peacock_, after
an hour and a half of hard fighting was in a sinking state. The effect
of the enemy's fire was tremendous, but the men of the _Peacock_
behaved nobly. Mr. Humble, the boatswain, having had his hand shot
away, went to the cockpit, underwent amputation at the wrist, and again
voluntarily came upon deck to pipe the boarders. The _Peacock_ was now
rapidly settling down, and a signal of distress was consequently
hoisted. The signal was at once humanely answered. The firing ceased
immediately, the American's boats were launched, and every effort
praiseworthily made to save the sinking crew. All were not, however,
saved. Three of the _Hornet's_ men and thirteen of the crew of the
_Peacock_ went down in the latter vessel together. The _Hornet_ carried
twenty guns, while the _Peacock_ had only eighteen, and the tonnage of
the former exceeded, by seventy-four tons, that of the latter.

The Americans now gathering up their strength, irritated by their
repeated failures on the land, and disheartened, but yet not
discouraged by their original weakness on the lakes, were about, in
some degree, to be compensated more suitably for their inland losses
than by the capture or rather by the negative kind of advantage of
destroying at considerable cost and risk, frigates and sloops of war at
sea, inferior in every respect, the bravery of the sailors and the
skill of the officers excepted, to the huge and properly much esteemed
American double-banked frigates and long-gunned brigs. The command of
Lake Ontario had devolved on the Americans. New ships of considerable
size, and well armed, under the superintendence of experienced naval
officers, were built and launched day after day. Troops were being
collected at every point for an attack, by sea and land, upon either
York or Kingston. It was now exceedingly necessary that some activity
of a similar kind should be displayed by the British. The forests
abounded in the very best timber; ther