al Brown, crossing the Niagara, compelled the garrison of Fort Erie
to surrender prisoners of war; and then attacked the British lines at
Chippawa, and compelled General Riall to retreat on Fort George.
This officer, however, being re-enforced by some troops under General
Drummond, returned, and compelled the enemy to take refuge under the
cannon of Fort Erie. About this time the British government, on the
dethronement of Napoleon, having resolved to prosecute the contest with
increased vigour, a numerous fleet arrived in the St. Lawrence with
14,000 of the brave troops that had fought in the Peninsula. Sir George
Prevost commanded them, and in the month of September he entered the
American territory, and advanced against Platsburg, on Lake Champlain,
in conjunction with a flotilla under Captain Dordnie of the navy. This
expedition, however, resulted disastrously, and Sir George Prevost was
recalled to answer charges preferred against him by Sir James Yeo;
but he did not live to await his trial. Success, however, attended
the British arms in other quarters. During this year Admiral Cochrane
destroyed the Baltimore flotilla in the Patuxent; General Ross captured
and set fire to the city of Washington, after having encountered and
defeated an army of 9,000 Americans; General Pilkington reduced Moose
Island, and two others, in the bay of Passamaquoddy; and the English
frigate "Phobe" captured the United States' frigate "Essex," off
Valparaiso, on the western coast of South America. On the other hand, a
British sloop of war was captured by the American sloop "Wasp;" and
an expedition, under Admiral Cochrane and Sir E. Pakenham, against New
Orleans failed, after a severe rencontre with the American troops who
defended the city. The final event of the war was the capture of Fort
Bowyer, by the British, in the Gulf of Mexico. But before this event
took place, a treaty of peace and amity had been signed at Ghent, which
was afterwards ratified by both governments.

{GEORGE III. 1814-1818}

TREATY OF PEACE WITH AMERICA, ETC.

The treaty of Ghent was negociated on the part of America by Messrs.
Adams, Bayard, Clay, Russel, and Gallatin; and of Great Britain by Lord
Gambier, Mr. Goulburn, and Dr. Adams. On the grand cause of the war,
and the primary object of dispute--the right of search, the treaty was
wholly silent: the Americans tacitly abandoning their resistance to the
maritime claims of England. The treaty restored co