Oswego,
A city and county seat of Oswego co., N. Y.; now noted for its manufactures and for its large shipments of grain and lumber; population in 1900, |
| Attack on Fort Ontario, Oswego, May 5, 1814. |
In 1756 Dieskau was succeeded by the Marquis de Montcalm, who, perceiving the delay of the English at Albany and their weakness through sickness and lack of provisions (of which he was informed by spies), collected about 5,000 Frenchmen, Canadians, and Indians at Frontenac (now Kingston), at the foot of Lake Ontario, crossed that lake, and appeared before Oswego in force on Aug. 11. He attacked Fort Ontario, on the east side of the river, commanded by Colonel Mercer, who, with his garrison, after a short but brave resistance, withdrew to an older fort on the west side of the stream. The English were soon compelled to surrender the fort. Their commander was killed, and on the 14th Montcalm received, as spoils of victory, 1,400 prisoners, a large quantity of ammunition and provisions and other stores, 134 pieces of artillery, and several vessels lying in the harbor. The Six Nations had never been well satisfied with the building of these forts by the English in the heart of their territory. To please them, Montcalm demolished the forts, and by this act induced the Six Nations to take a position of neutrality. The capture of this fort caused the English commander-in-chief to abandon all the [46] expeditions he had planned for the campaign of 1756.
During the winter and spring of 1813-14 the Americans and British prepared to make a struggle for the mastery of Lake Ontario. When the ice in Kingston Harbor permitted vessels to leave it, Sir James L. Yeo, commander of the British squadron in those waters, went out upon the lake with his force of about 3,000 land troops and marines. On May 5, 1814, he appeared off Oswego Harbor, which was defended by Fort Ontario, on a bluff on the east side of the river, with a garrison of about 300 men under Lieut.-Col. George E. Mitchell. Chauncey, not feeling strong enough to oppose Yeo, prudently remained with his squadron at Sackett's Harbor. The active cruising force of Sir James consisted of eight vessels, carrying an aggregate of 222 pieces of ordnance. To oppose these at Oswego was the schooner Growler, Captain Woolsey. She was in the river for the purpose of conveying guns and naval stores to Sackett's Harbor. To prevent her falling into the hands of the British, she was sunk, and a part of her crew, under Lieutenant Pearce, joined the garrison at the fort. The latter then mounted only six old guns, three of which were almost useless, because they had lost their trunnions. Mitchell's force was too small to defend both the fort and the village, on the west side of the river, so he pitched all his tents near the town and gathered his whole force into the fort. Deceived by the appearance of military strength at the village, the British proceeded to attack the fort, leaving the defenceless town unmolested. The land troops, in fifteen large boats, covered by the guns of the vessels, moved to the shore near the fort early in the afternoon. They were repulsed by a heavy cannon placed near the shore. The next day (May 6) the fleet again appeared, and the larger vessels of the squadron opened fire on the fort. The troops landed in the afternoon, and, after a sharp fight in the open field, the garrison retired, and the British took possession of the fort. The main object of the British was the seizure of naval stores at the falls of the Oswego River (now Fulton), and Mitchell, after leaving the fort, took position up the river for their defence. Early on the morning of the 7th the invaders withdrew, after having embarked the guns and a few stores found in Oswego, dismantled the fort, and burned the barracks. They also raised and carried away the Growler; also several citizens who had been promised protection and exemption from molestation. In this affair the Americans lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, sixty-nine men; the British lost nineteen killed and seventy-five wounded. See Ontario, Lake, operations on.
