The various events were so complicated by the overlapping of time and place all along the line that we must begin by taking a bird’s-eye view of them in territorial sequence, starting from the farthest inland flank and working eastward to the sea.  Everything west of Detroit may be left out altogether, because operations did not recommence in that quarter until the campaign of the following year.

In January the British struck successfully at Frenchtown, more than thirty miles south of Detroit.  They struck unsuccessfully, still farther south, at Fort Meigs in May and at Fort Stephenson in August; after which they had to remain on the defensive, all over the Lake Erie region, till their flotilla was annihilated at Put-in Bay in September and their army was annihilated at Moravian Town on the Thames in October.  In the Lake Ontario region the situation was reversed.  Here the British began badly and ended well.  They surrendered York in April and Fort George, at the mouth of the Niagara, in May.  They were also repulsed in a grossly mismanaged attack on Sackett’s Harbour two days after their defeat at Fort George.  The opposing flotillas meanwhile fought several manoeuvring actions of an indecisive kind, neither daring to risk battle and possible annihilation.  But, as the season advanced, the British regained their hold on the Niagara peninsula by defeating the Americans at Stoney Creek and the Beaver Dams in June, and by clearing both sides of the Niagara river in December.  On the upper St Lawrence they took Ogdensburg in February.  They were also completely successful in their defence of Montreal.  In June they took the American gunboats at Isle-aux-Noix on the Richelieu; in July they raided Lake Champlain; while in October and November they defeated the two divisions of the invading army at Chateauguay and Chrystler’s Farm.  The British news from sea also improved as the year wore on.  The American frigate victories began to stop.  The Shannon beat the Chesapeake.  And the shadow of the Great Blockade began to fall on the coast of the Democratic South.

The operations of 1813 are more easily understood if taken in this purely territorial way.  But in following the progress of the war we must take them chronologically.  No attempt can be made here to describe the movements on either side in any detail.  An outline must suffice.  Two points, however, need special emphasis, as they are both markedly characteristic of the war in general and of this campaign in particular.  First, the combined effect of the American victories of Lake Erie and the Thames affords a perfect example of the inseparable connection between the water and the land.  Secondly, the British victories at the Beaver Dams and Chateauguay are striking examples of the inter-racial connection among the forces that defended Canada so well.  The Indians did all the real fighting at the Beaver Dams.  The French Canadians fought practically alone at Chateauguay.