The British Withdrawal

As fighting continued around the barracks, the British flanking column fought through the village and past the navy yard to the palisades around Fort Tompkins, blocking the Americans' planned route of retreat to Fort Volunteer. But when a column of American reinforcements appeared on the British right flank, the British retreated with their wounded to the landing area. Americans at Fort Tompkins fired on the withdrawing British, and unable to withstand the grapeshot and shaken by wild rumors spreading through their ranks, the British broke and ran to their boats while the Americans did not pursue. Before the War of 1812, the landscape around Sackets Harbor was heavily forested, but trees were cut down to build ships and provide firewood to the navy, and some land was developed for agriculture and for the village's expansion west toward Horse Island. A peaceful community of summer cottages now stands on land that once saw the British advance from Horse Island.

Sackets Harbor, New York · United States