Opposite to, and distant about half a mile from, the town, is a long low peninsula, forming the west side of Navy Bay, the principal naval depot of the British on this lake, and where the ships of war were constructed.
Of the American military posts on Lake Ontario, the principal one is Sackett's harbour, distant from Kingston, by the ship channel, 35 miles.
The harbour is small but well sheltered.

From the north-west runs out a low point of land, upon which was the dock yard with large store houses, and all the buildings requisite for such an establishment.

Upon this point there was a strong work called Fort Tompkins, having within it a blockhouse two stories high: on the land side it was covered by a strong picketing, in which there were embrasures; at the bottom of the harbour was the village, containing about seventy houses; and, to the southward of it, a large barrack, capable of containing 2,000 men, and generally occupied by the marines belonging to the fleet.

Towards the middle of 1814, there were three additional works, Fort Virginia, Fort Chauncey, and Fort Kentucky, as well as several new blockhouses; and the guns then mounted upon the different forts exceeded sixty.[52] The greatest length of the Michigan territory, from south-east to north-west, is 500 miles, and the number of square miles both of land and water is estimated at 150,000.

The country was then chiefly in the possession of the Indians, and the white population amounted by the previous census to about 5,000.