Great West. To illustrate the
sweep of this influence, it may be mentioned here--for there will be
no occasion to repeat--that an expedition from Mackinac at a later
period captured the isolated United States post at Prairie du Chien,
on the Mississippi, on the western border of what is now the state of
Wisconsin. Already, at the most critical period, the use of the water
had enabled Brock, by simultaneous movements, to send cannon from Fort
George by way of Fort Erie to Fort Malden; while at the same time
replacing those thus despatched by others brought from Toronto and
Kingston. In short, control of the lakes conferred upon him the
recognized advantage of a central position--the Niagara
peninsula--having rapid communication by interior lines with the
flanks, or extremities; to Malden and Detroit in one direction, to
Toronto and Kingston in the other.

It was just here, also, that the first mischance befell him; and it
cannot but be a subject of professional pride to a naval officer to
trace the prompt and sustained action of his professional ancestors,
who reversed conditions, not merely by a single brilliant blow, upon
which popular reminiscence fastens, but by efficient initiative and
sustained sagacious exertion through a long period of time. On
September 3, Captain Isaac Chauncey had been ordered from the New York
navy yard to command on Lakes Erie and Ontario. Upon the latter there
was already serving Lieutenant Melancthon T. Woolsey, in command of a
respectable vessel, the brig "Oneida," of eighteen 24-pounder
carronades. On Erie there was as yet no naval organization nor vessel.
Chauncey consequently, on September 7, ordered thither Lieutenant
Jesse D. Elliott to select a site for equipping vessels, and to
contract for two to be built of three hundred tons each. Elliott, who
arrived at Buffalo on the 14th, was still engaged in this preliminary
work, and was fitting some purchased schooners behind Squaw Island,
three miles below, when, on October 8, there arrived from Malden, and
anchored off Fort Erie, two British armed brigs, the "Detroit"--lately
the American "Adams," surrendered with Hull--and the "Caledonia,"
which co-operated so decisively in the fall of Mackinac. The same day
he learned the near approach of a body of ninety seamen, despatched by
Chauncey from New York on September 22.[459] He sent to hasten them,
and they arrived at noon. The afternoon was spent in preparations,
weapons having to be obt