The British Advance is Halted

The British Advance is Halted. For An Hour. Near here, members of the U.S. Army's 9th, 21st, and 23rd Infantry, along with 313 light dragoons, and the Albany Volunteers were positioned in a drainage ditch to defend the approach to fort Tompkins. They held this position for over an hour until they were ordered to retire, twice forcing the British to fall back to the edge of the forest., "... the dragoons in particular ... fought like lions and actually gained the day. [they] were the best infantry on the line." , Jacint Laval, Major, U.S. Dragoons, to the President, 16 August, 1815., Unfortunately, an American junior navy officer, observing the battle from Black River Bay and believing all was lost, sent a prearranged signal to the navy yard. this caused fires to be set to the American barracks and warehouses, which destroyed the supplies the British wanted to transport back to Kingston, Upper Canada., The Hall Farm , Jesse Smith purchased a portion of the battlefield from Michael Mooney in 1832 and sold it three years later to Thomas S. Hall. A member of the hall family built the Greek Revival style house around 1835. Between 1815 and 1949, various owners operated a small dairy farm to the south of the cantonment area. The buildings that remain from this complex date between 1835 and 1907. In 1967, New York State purchased the farm and added it to the historic site property.