ptember_) 17. 1814. FUeRST. F. (_fecit_).

PETER BUEL PORTER was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, August 14, 1773.
He was graduated at Yale College, New Haven, in 1791; and studied law
and commenced practice in Canandaigua, New York, in 1795. He was a
member of Congress, 1809-1813; a major-general of New York volunteers,
1813; and distinguished himself at the battles of Chippewa, Niagara,
and Erie, for which Congress gave him a vote of thanks and a gold
medal.[97] He was again a member of Congress, 1815-1816; was appointed
a United States commissioner for determining the north-western
boundary, 1816; and was secretary of War in 1828-1829. He died at
Niagara Falls, March 20, 1844.

[Footnote 97: The resolution of Congress voting
this medal, and the official reports of the battles
of Chippewa, Niagara, and Erie, are given under No.
39, page 203.]

_____

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. (p. 216)

_Brigadier-General P. B. Porter to Major-General Jacob Brown._

To
Jacob BROWN, Esq., Fort Erie, September 22d, 1814.
Major-General commanding.

Sir: In executing the duty you have imposed on me, of reporting
the conduct of the officers and men composing the left column,
which you were pleased to place under my command, in the sortie
of the 17th instant, the pleasure I derive in representing to you
the admirable conduct of the whole, is deeply chastened by sorrow
for the loss of many brave and distinguished men.

Being obliged, from the nature of the ground, to act on foot, it
was impossible that my own personal observation should reach to
every officer. Some part of this report must therefore rest upon
the information of others.

It is the business of this communication to speak of the conduct
of individuals; yet you will permit me to premise, although well
known to yourself already, that the object of the left column was
to penetrate by a circuitous route between the enemy's batteries,
where one-third of his force was always kept on duty, and his
main camp, and that it was sub-divided into three divisions: the
advance of 200 riflemen, and a few Indians, commanded by Colonel
Gibson, and two columns moving parallel to, and 30 yards distant
from, each ot