|
Major General Edmund Gaines. J.MI.13, Loubat 44. Silver
From Stack's January 2005 Auction, Session 1 on Jan 18, 2005
|
 Major General Edmund Gaines. J.MI.13, Loubat 44. Silver. Overall Extremely Fine, sharpness of About Uncirculated. 64.4 mm. Rims 3.5 - 3.7 mm. thick. 1,783.3 gns. (115.4 gms.). Specific gravity 10.47 (per the late Ted Craige). Bright silver in color, once cleaned. Extremely rare: Carlson noted four auction records for a silver Gaines but the cataloguer can only trace three different specimens: this; Dreyfuss:5261 (Uncirculated, 1,774.8 gns., sold for $3,300); and the Bushnell to Garrett:1965 to Dusterberg Collection:472 piece (Presidential Coin and Antique Company, October 2000, 115.8 gms., graded Brilliant Proof, sold for $20,000). The gold medal given to Gaines by his country was struck in 1824 and it is logical to suppose the silver medals were made soon afterwards. The date August 15, 1814 on the reverse of the medal is that of the repulse by Gaines' force besieged in Fort Erie of a British attack under General Drummond. @ When the American army under General Ripley retired from the Battle of Chippewa (July, 1814), it reformed in and around Fort Erie on the Niagara River, which had recently been captured from the British by General Brown. The Americans set about finishing the fort's defenses, erecting bastions for cannon, and digging trenches against an anticipated siege and assault. Pursuing them was British General Gordon Drummond. Both sides had suffered at the Battle of Chippewa but both were about equally matched. Following an inconclusive siege of Fort Erie and believing that General Gaines' defense numbered no more than 1,500 effectives, General Drummond decided on a night assault by 2,150 of his soldiers. Planned for the night of August 14/15, Drummond believed that success depended on surprise and ordered an attack by bayonet to preserve silence by ruling out accidental discharge of musketry. Unknown to Drummond, Gaines' force actually numbered 2,200 men. Further, Gaines suspected an impending assault and kept half his force on watch and ordered that the rest sleep with their weapons at the ready.
When the British attack came, the American center refused it five separate times. On the American left, Drummond led his men in person and gained a lodgment in the fort's northeast bastion, where the fight was brutal and without quarter. Drummond was hit, bayonetted and shot in the head at close range. The British attack, launched multiple times at this point in the line, also failed and when a powder magazine detonated under it, retired in some confusion. When the British withdrew, they had suffered 57 killed, 309 wounded, and 539 missing, or two out of every five men who started towards the fort on August 14/15. Gaines' losses were 74 killed, wounded and missing. The siege continued, however. On August 25, just 10 days after his victory, as he was sitting at his desk writing reports, a British shell crashed through the roof of Gaines' headquarters, landed on his desk in front of him, and exploded. The small device totally demolished the desk and wounded Gaines in four or five places. General Jacob Brown ordered General Ripley to assume command.
Ex Eric Vaule on December 8, 1966.
| |
|
|
Click on an image below for a larger version  
|
|
