Battle of Ogdensburg

The Battle of Ogdensburg, fought on 22 February 1813, was a winter raid across the frozen St. Lawrence River that eliminated an American base which had been disrupting British communications and cross-river trade for months. It was a small engagement – fewer than 1,000 men on both sides – but it demonstrated the aggressiveness of British frontier commanders and the vulnerability of American border positions during the winter months when the frozen river could be crossed on foot.

Ogdensburg, a small town on the American side of the St. Lawrence in northern New York, had become a base for American raiding operations under Captain Benjamin Forsyth of the US Rifles. Forsyth was an aggressive and effective partisan commander who had conducted several raids against British positions across the river, including an attack on Elizabethtown (now Brockville) on 6 February that captured supplies and prisoners. The raids disrupted the flow of communications and supplies along the St. Lawrence – the vital corridor connecting Lower and Upper Canada.

Lieutenant Colonel George Macdonell, commanding at Prescott across the river, resolved to eliminate the nuisance. His force consisted of approximately 480 men: companies of the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles (a Canadian unit raised from Highland Scots settlers), regulars from the 8th Foot, and local militia. The attack was launched across the frozen river on the morning of 22 February.

Macdonell divided his force into two columns advancing on the ice. The approach was made under fire from American positions on the riverbank, and the crossing was not without risk – the attackers were exposed on the open ice for several hundred yards. Once ashore, however, the British advance was rapid. Forsyth’s garrison, outnumbered and caught partially by surprise, fought a brief delaying action through the streets of the town before retreating south.

British casualties were seven killed and forty-eight wounded – reflecting the exposure of the crossing. American losses were approximately twenty killed and seventy captured, along with substantial military stores. The British occupied Ogdensburg, destroyed the military supplies, and withdrew across the river to Prescott. The town was not permanently garrisoned, but the message was clear: American border bases would not be tolerated.

The action effectively neutralised Ogdensburg as an American military position for the remainder of the war. Forsyth was reassigned, and the town’s inhabitants – many of whom had profitable trading relationships with their Canadian neighbours across the river – had no enthusiasm for inviting further British attention. Cross-river trade resumed, and the St. Lawrence corridor, essential to British logistics, was secured from further disruption from this quarter.

Ogdensburg was characteristic of the winter warfare that defined much of the war along the northern frontier. The frozen rivers and lakes that separated the belligerents for much of the year became highways of attack during the coldest months. British willingness to exploit this seasonal vulnerability – crossing open ice under fire to strike at American positions – reflected a frontier aggressiveness that American border garrisons found difficult to counter.