r early in
October. General Wade Hampton was ordered to join him from northern
New York. Wilkinson embarked on October 2d, and Scott was left in
command of Fort George with some eight hundred regulars and part of a
regiment of militia under Colonel Joseph Gardner Swift. Under
directions of Captain Totten, of the engineers, work was rapidly
advanced in placing the fort in tenable condition; but the work was
not completed before October 9th, when, to Scott's surprise, the enemy
near him moved down toward Wilkinson. As authorized by his orders,
Colonel Scott turned the command of the fort over to Brigadier-General
McLure, of the New York militia. It was arranged that Scott was to
join Wilkinson, and that vessels for his transportation should be sent
up to the mouth of the Genesee River.

On his arrival there he received information that Commodore Chauncey,
commanding the fleet, had been detained by the protest of General
Wilkinson against his leaving him, even for a few days. Scott was
then compelled to undertake the long march for Sackett's Harbor by way
of Rochester, Canandaigua, and Utica. The march was accomplished under
many difficulties and with much suffering, as it rained almost
incessantly, and the roads were in the worst of conditions. On his
arrival in advance of his troops, he was appointed to the command of a
battalion under Colonel Macomb. Being in command of the advance of the
army in the descent of the St. Lawrence, he was not present at the
engagement at Chrysler's Farm on November 11th. At that time, in
conjunction with Colonel Dennis, he was forcing a passage near
Cornwall, under fire of a British force, which he routed, and captured
many prisoners.

The day before the occurrence of the affair just mentioned he landed
at Fort Matilda, commanding a narrow place on the river, where he
gained possession of the fort. The expedition which was announced for
the conquest of Canada was, on November 12th, abandoned by its leader
and projector, General Wilkinson, who commanded a retreat. This
occurred when Scott was fifteen miles in advance of Chrysler's Field,
there being no body of British troops between him and Montreal, and
the garrison at the latter place had only four hundred marines and two
hundred sailors.

Wilkinson's defense for his failure was that General Hampton had
refused to join him at St. Regis for fear of lack of provisions and
forage.

After the events just related, Colonel Scott was engag