War of 1812french

Graeme Decarie, Canadian Historian,
and Patrick Wilder, American Historian

Further Reading

Sacket’s Harbour

Index of Historians

A revisitation of Sacket’s Harbour

Decarie: We're standing at the point at which the British charged across against American militia where we're standing. But it didn't quite start here, did it?

Wilder: No, it didn't. Sacket's Harbour had already become the chief naval post for the Americans for the invasions of Canada shortly after the beginning of the war. And the Americans started the construction of a very large and powerful fleet here. The British knew that if these ships were all launched that there would be no way that they could stop them from battering the forts at Kingston, pounding York, which had already been captured by the Americans four months before, and drive the British from the lake and, voilà, Upper Canada would fall into American hands.

At least this was the American Plan. The British knew that if they could abort that by destroying a huge ship that was on the ways here, a frigate rigged for sails of145 feet between the perpendiculars, with a 37-foot beam, that carried 450 men with 26 long 24 pounders, that there would be no way that Upper Canada could be saved for Great Britain. Therefore, when Commodore Chauncey left Sackett's Harbour for the upper end of the lake to take Fort George opposite Fort Niagara, the British seized the opportunity.

A spy by the name of Samuel Steacy from Ogdensburg, New York, who slithered into Sacket's Harbour, had learned that the fleet was gone. He then ran to Kingston as fast as he could, gave this information to Sir George Prevost and Sir James Lucas Yeo. With this information, the British then came over to Sacket's Harbour, reconnoitered the place, found out that what Samuel Steacy had told them was indeed true, and then gave the alarm for the troops to fall out at Kingston, board the ships for the 36 miles to Sacket's Harbour to destroy the new ship, General Pike.

Decarie: I always thought that this battle summed up the war. For the Americans, this was their key position, they should have been attacking Kingston, they never did. And Kingston, which should have been looking to its own defenses in terror, in fact was the one that attacked here. The failure of the Americans to understand some of the strategic elements that were so important to this war is completely summed up in the fact that this battle occurred.