918

MAJOR HOLMES KILLED AT MACKINAC.

1814.

Harrison to resign his post.* No sooner, however, had the plan of April been abandoned, thau it was revived again, in consequence of new information as to the establishment at Gloucester bay, or properly, at Mackadash.

In consequence of the orders issued upon the 2d of June, seven hundred and fifty men, under Colonel Croghan, embarked in the American squadron, commanded by Sinclair, and upon the 12th of July, entered Lake Huron. After spending a week in a vain effort to get into Mackadash. in order to destroy the imaginary vessels there building, the fleet sailed to St. Joseph's, which was found deserted ; thence a small party was sent to St. Mary's falls, while the remainder of the forces steered for Mackinac.

At the former point the trading house was destroyed, and the goods seized ; at Mackinac, the result was far different. Tbe troops landed upon the west of the island, upon the 4th of August, but after a severe action, in which Major Holmes and eleven others were killed, still found themselves so situated as to lead Croghan to abandon the attempt to prosecute the attack; aud Mackinac was left in possession of the enemy.

Having failed in this effort it was determined by the American leaders to make an attempt to capture the schooner Nancy, which was conveying supplies to the islaud fortress. In this, or rather in effecting the destruction of the vessel, they succeeded, and having left Lieutenant Turner, to prevent any other provisions from Canada reaching Mackinac, the body of the fleet sailed for Detroit, which it reached, shattered and thinned by tempests.

Meanwhile the crew of the Nancy, who had escaped, passed over to Mackinac in a boat which they found, and an expedition was at once arranged by Lieutenant Worsley, who had commanded them, for frustrating all the plans of Croghan and Sinclair. Taking with him seventy or eighty men in boats, he first attacked and captured the Tigress, an American vessel lying off St. Joseph's; the next, sailing down the lake in the craft thus taken, easily made the three vessels under Turner, his own. In this enterprise, therefore, the Americans failed signally, at every point, t

In the third place, an attempt was made to control the tribes of the Upper Mississippi by founding a fort at Prairie du Chien. Early in May, Governor Clark, of Missouri, was sent thither, and there commenced Fort Shelby, without opposition.   By the middle of

* M'Afee, 414, 422.   Harrison's resignation is on 419.

fM'Afec, 422 to 437.   The official accounts are in Niles' Register, yii. 4, &c., 18,156.