The Americans on being informed that Michillimackinac had been reinforced, and perhaps anticipating that further mischief to them might ensue, sent Colonel Croghan without loss of time to capture it. Croghan dispatched Major Holmes upon Ste. Marie to plunder the North West Company of their stores. The miscreant was only too successful. Not content with plunder only, he set fire to the buildings and reduced them to ashes. He gave further proof of the possession of a cruel and barbarous disposition, by enjoying the unavailing efforts of a poor horse to extricate itself from a burning building to which it had been inhumanly attached, to be burnt to death, after having been employed the greater part of the day in carrying off the plunder from the stores. This wretch, accompanied by nine hundred men, of a stamp similar to himself, effected a landing near Michillimackinac, on the 4th of August. But the reception given to him was of such a nature that he speedily re-embarked, leaving seventeen dead men, besides his own inanimate remains, to be buried by the people in the fort. Michillimackinac was not yet, however, quite safe. There were on the lake two American armed vessels, the _Tigress_ and _Scorpion_, each carrying a long twenty-four pounder gun, on a pivot, and manned by thirty-two men, which intercepted the supplies intended for the garrison. It was most necessary to destroy or get hold of them, and this not unimportant business was entrusted to Lieutenant Worsley, of the Royal Navy, and Lieutenant Bulger, of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. These two gallant officers proceeded to the despatch of business with praiseworthy alacrity. On the evening of the 3rd of September, one vessel was boarded and captured, and on the morning of the 5th the other craft was captured. Michillimackinac was now sufficiently safe.
The war, which was no longer, on the part of the British, a merely defensive one, was now being offensively prosecuted with vigour in several quarters, almost simultaneously. Washington had been taken and Baltimore assailed on one side; and Fort Erie, containing the American army of the West, was closely invested. It was now determined to prosecute hostilities from Nova Scotia, which then included New Brunswick, upon the northeastern States of the American Union. With this view, Sir John Sherbrooke sent Colonel Pilkington in the _Ramilies_, commanded by Sir Thomas Hardy, to take possession of Moose Island, the chief town of which is Eastport, commanded by a strongly situated fort, on an overhanging hill, called Fort Sullivan. The fort was, however, only occupied by Major Putnam, six other officers, and eighty men, and was taken possession of on the 11th of July, without resistance, the garrison being made prisoners of war. As soon as the news of this successful enterprise reached the ears of Sherbrooke, he determined upon personally undertaking another expedition. On the 26th of August, he, accordingly, embarked, at Halifax, the whole of the troops at his disposal, in ten transports, and in company with the squadron, commanded by Admiral Griffiths, sailed for the river Penobscot, on the 1st of September, when the fort at Castine, commanding the entrance to the river, was evacuated and blown up. The American frigate _John Adams_, was in the river and, on the approach of the fleet, she was run up the river as high as Hampden. The better to protect her from capture her guns were taken out and, at some distance below Hampden, batteries or earthworks were erected, in which all the guns of the frigate were placed. The capture or destruction of the _John Adams_ was, however, determined upon, and Captain Barrie, of the _Dragon_, with a party of seamen, accompanied by Colonel John, at the head of six hundred of the 60th regiment, was sent off to effect it. For a short time the batteries resisted, but the attack being well managed the Americans gave way, and, having set fire to the frigate, fled in all directions. The expedition pushed on to Bangor, which surrendered without resistance; and from thence they went to Machias, which surrendered by capitulation, the whole militia of the county of Washington being put on their parole not to serve again during the war. The whole country between the Penobscot and the frontier of that part of Nova Scotia, which is now New Brunswick, was then formally taken possession of, and a provisional government established, to rule it while the war continued.