retreat was disgraced by the burning of the town of Newark, where women
and children were turned homeless into the cold of a Canadian winter. At
the same time the American forces were withdrawn from south-western
Canada but still retained Amherstburg at the head of Lake Erie, the sole
conquest of the campaign.

[Pageheading: _NAVAL WARFARE._]

The naval warfare of 1813 was less rich in individual encounters than
that of 1812. The British captains were better acquainted with the
strength of the American ships and did not rashly engage vessels
stronger than their own. There was also a marked improvement in British
gunnery, and an increase in the strength of the British naval force in
American waters. At first the blockade of the American coast had not
been strictly maintained further south than New York, but as
reinforcements arrived it was made more complete, and after June of this
year it was only occasionally that any warship or privateer contrived to
elude the blockading vessels. Meanwhile the British constantly raided
and harassed the American coast, and had no difficulty in availing
themselves of the Chesapeake and Delaware estuaries as naval bases. A
new feature of this year's warfare was the appearance of American
cruisers, especially privateers, in British waters, and even in the St.
George's Channel. To such ships the French ports were a very serviceable
naval base. The Americans would appear to have captured more of British
commerce than the British captured of theirs, but this was no
compensation for the almost complete cessation of their foreign trade.
Of single ship actions the destruction of the British _Peacock_ by the
American _Hornet_, commanded by Captain Lawrence, on February 24, the
capture of the American _Argus_ by the British _Pelican_ not far from
the Welsh coast on August 14, and the famous duel between the
_Chesapeake_ and the _Shannon_ on June 1 were the most important.

The British frigate _Shannon_ (38) was commanded by Captain Broke, who
was famous not merely for the attention he paid to gun practice, but for
the care he had bestowed on the laying of his ship's ordnance. Ever
since the beginning of April the frigates _Shannon_ and _Tenedos_ (38)
had been lying off Boston, where they hoped to intercept any American
frigate that dared to leave the harbour. Two succeeded in eluding them.
The _Chesapeake_ frigate (36) commanded by Lawrence, lay in the harbour;
and Broke, having detached the _