General Gaines set to work at once to rebuild the ruined bastion and strengthen the whole line of works, while the enemy, after receiving reenforcements, began a siege by regular approaches. They soon brought their parallels so close that they were able to throw shells and hot shot into the fort every day. One shell descended through the roof of General Gaines's headquarters, and exploded at his feet, so injuring him that he was forced to give up the command to General Brown, and retire to Buffalo. The Americans in the fort, as well as the besiegers, had been reenforced, and General Brown planned a grand sortie to break up the siege works. The enemy's camp was two miles in the rear, and one third of his force was thrown forward at a time to work on the parallels. The Americans secretly marked out a road through the woods, leading from their left around to a point close upon the right of the besiegers. On the 17th of September two columns, of about one thousand men each, sallied out from the fort. One column followed the road through the woods and suddenly burst upon the British right, while the other marched through a ravine, against the centre. Before reënforcements could come from the British camp, the Americans { 250}leaped into the siege works, after bloody fighting overcame all resistance, dismounted the guns and rendered them useless, exploded the magazines, and returned to the fort with many prisoners. This operation cost the Americans five hundred and twenty men, killed, wounded, or missing, and the British six hundred and nine.
In the night of the 21st, General Drummond raised the siege, and retired beyond the Chippewa. In October the Americans dismantled Fort Erie, and returned to the eastern shore of the Niagara. { 251}
CHAPTER XV. THE SECOND INVASION OF NEW YORK.
_Fight at La Colle Mill--Ship-building--Yeo's Attack on Oswego--Affairs at Charlotte and Poultneyville--Fight at Sandy Creek--Izard's Failure on the Niagara--Expedition against Michilimackinac--Prevost's Advance into New York--Its Purpose--Battle of Plattsburg._
|In February General Wilkinson had removed his army from French Mills to Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, and a month later he added one more to the futile invasions of Canada. At the head of four thousand men, he crossed the border, March 30th, met a party of British at Odelltown, with whom skirmishing was carried on for three miles along the road, and found the enemy seriously in his path at La Colle Mill, on the Sorel, four miles from Rouse's Point, where about two hundred men were posted in a stone mill and a block-house, on either side of La Colie Creek.