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precaution. His force, it is stated by British writers, was inferior to that of the Americans, consisting of some fifteen hundred regulars, and about a thousand militia and Indians. Within two miles of the enemy Brown halted, and drew up in regular order; and on the following day Riall left his intrenchments and accepted the challenge to battle.

At five in the morning of the 6th of July, the action commenced, the Canadian militia and Indian allies attacking the American volunteers, the redoubted marksmen of Kentucky, who stood their ground so bravely, and dealt such deadly shots into the ranks of the enemy, that not till some of the regulars came up were they driven back.

The first battalion, under Major Leavenworth, took a position on the right; and the second was led to its station by Colonel Campbell, who, on being wounded shortly afterwards, was succeeded by Major M'Neill. Major Jessup, who commanded the third battalion, which was formed on the left, resting in a wood, was ordered to turn the right flank of the British, then steadily advancing upon the American line. The cool intrepidity of the troops was worthy of the highest praise, and showed what advances in discipline had been made under such officers as Scott, Ripley, and others.

The main body of the British now

* According to American contemporary authorities,

the British force was not short of three thousand in

all; and as only Scott's brigade was actually engaged in battle, it was fought on the American side by less than thirteen hundred men. The reader will note the frequent discrepancies between the accounts of the

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advanced to the attack in column, the Americans receiving them in line, thus reversing, as Alison says, the usual order of the British and French in the peninsular campaigns. The result was the same as what had there so often occurred; the head of the British column was crushed by the discharges of the American line, which stood bravely, and fired with great precision; and though they succeeded in deploying with much steadiness, the loss sustained in doing so was so serious, that General Riall was compelled hastily to retreat, with the loss of one hundred and fifty men killed, three hundred and twenty wounded, and fortyfour missing. M'Neill's battalion, with its left wing thrown forward, took the enemy in front and flank at the same time, and did prodigious execution; and the victory was ascribed in no small part to a daring movement,—a bayonet charge,-by Major Jessup, in the midst of a destructive fire from the British troops. The Americans lost three hundred and twenty-eight in killed, wounded, and missing.

The result of this battle was especially gratifying to the American people, for it served to prove, that nothing but discipline was wanting on land, to give our soldiers the same capability, which had been so gallantly maintained by our sailors, of meeting and conquer ing the veteran troops of England. The battle was fought manfully on both sides, and, as above shown, was unusu ally sanguinary.

General Brown, having resolved to numbers engaged in contest; it is, in fact, almost im- dislodge the British, sent forward General Ripley, two days afterwards, to

possible to attain exactitude on these points.

Ca XI.]

THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE.

open a road, and build a bridge over the Chippewa River for the passage of the troops. Riall endeavored to prevent this, but unsuccessfully, and soon after, withdrew from his entrenchments and fell back upon Queenstown. The next day he retired to Twenty-mile Creek, and General Brown immediately occupied Queenstown. On the 12th of July, General Swift, of the New York volunteers, set out with a party of a hundred and twenty men, to reconnoitre the works at Fort George. Having surprised an outpost, he captured a corporal and his guard. One of these, after having received quarter, treacherously shot Swift in the breast. This excellent officer survived his wound only a short time, but refused to leave his post until an attacking party of the enemy was beaten off. General Brown was now prepared to advance upon Forts Niagara and George, and purposed doing so; but unfortunately, Commodore Chauncey's illness had prevented his co-operating with the land force as was expected, and hence the British held the mastery of the lakes, and their vessels only were to be seen at Fort George, when the Americans arrived in its vicinity.

The gallant Brown, disappointed thus of the aid he had hoped for from the fleet, withdrew from his advanced position on the Niagara, and determined to follow and attack the British army

* Ingersoll (vol. ii., p. 93) censures Chauncey's course, and thinks that he ought to have rendered effectual service to Brown in his plans and purposes. See, also, Armstrong's "Notices of the War of 1812," rol. ii., pp. 237-44.

VOL. III.-30

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233

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at Burlington Heights. For this purpose, on the 24th of July, he fell back to the junction of the Chippewa with the Niagara. General Riall, who had been reinforced by the efforts of General Drummond, took post at Queenstown immediately after it was abandoned by the Americans; thence he sent a detachment across the Niag ara, for the purpose of threatening the town of Schlosser, where Brown had collected his supplies, and where were also his sick and wounded. Riall at the same time dispatched an advance party on the Niagara road. General Brown, with a view of drawing off the enemy from his attempt on the village across the river, resolved to put his force in motion towards Queenstown. General Scott, accordingly, with the first brigade, Towson's artillery, and all the dragoons and mounted men, over a thousand in number, set out directly on the road leading to Queenstown, with orders to report if the enemy appeared, and to call for assistance if necessary.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th of July, that Scott led his brigade from the camp, and after proceeding along the Niagara about two miles and a half from the Chippewa, and within a short distance of the cataracts, discovered General Riall 1814. on an eminence near Lundy's Lane, a position of great strength, where he had planted a battery of nine pieces of artillery, two of which were brass

* Armstrong's critical remarks on General Brown's movements and plans are worth consulting: "Notices of the War of 1812," vol. ii., pp. 113-18.

twenty-four pounders. On reaching a narrow strip of woods which intervened between the American and the British line, Captains Harris and Pentland, whose companies formed a part of the advance, and were first fired on, gallantly engaged the enemy. The latter now retreated for the purpose of drawing the American column to the post at Lundy's Lane. General Scott resolutely pressed forward, after dispatching Major Jones to the commander-in-chief with intelligence that he had come up with the enemy. He had no sooner cleared the wood, and formed in line on a plain finely adapted to military manoeuvres, than a tremendous cannonade commenced from the enemy's battery, situated on their right, which was returned by Captain Towson, whose artillery was posted opposite, and on the left of the American line, but without being able to bring his pieces to bear on the eminence. The battle raged for an hour with great fury, and both officers and men were stricken down in large numbers.

The situation of Scott and his brigade was now becoming critical in the extreme. The British commander waited only for reinforcements to crush his brave opponent, and Scott was well aware that unless aid arrived soon, he must give up the contest. Both armies, as if by concert, ceased from the work of death, and for a time, no sound was heard amid the gathering darkness, on that blood-stained field, save the distant roar of the great cataract, mingled with the groans of the wounded and dying. It was nearly at the same time that the British and the Americans were

reinforced, and the battle was renewed. General Ripley, with Major Hindman's artillery, and General Porter's volunteers, on the one side, and General Drummond with fresh troops, on the other, eagerly entered upon the contest, each anxious to sustain the honor of his country's arms. General Ripley, ascertaining the impossibility of doing any thing effective while the enemy's artillery occupied its commanding position, saw at once that they must be driven from it, or defeat must ensue. Turning to the brave Colonel Miller, he asked, "Can you storm that battery?" It was a desperate undertaking, but the gallant soldier, who knew the men under his command, and what they were capable of doing, answered, in words ever to be remembered, "I WILL TRY, SIR." And steadily, unfalteringly, with nerves strung to the fearful task, our countrymen advanced to the assault. Discharge after discharge of the blazing artillery, lightened up the darkness, and made sad inroads upon the noble twenty-first regiment; but, "close up, steady, men!" was the intrepid Miller's command, and onward they continued their march, until they reached the height, and swept the enemy from their very guns.

Meanwhile, Major Jessup, who, at the beginning of the action, had been detached against the British left, succeeded in turning the enemy's flank. Seizing the opportunity in the darkness, he threw his regiment in the rear of the British reserve, and surprising one detachment after another, made so many prisoners, of both officers and men, as in fact, to im

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CH. XI.]

THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE.

pede his progress. General Riall was among the prisoners. Feeling his way through the darkness, to the place where the hottest fire was kept up on the brigade to which he belonged, Jessup, about the time that Miller carried the enemy's cannon, drew up his regiment behind a fence, on one side of the Queenstown road, in the rear of a party of British infantry. So destructive was Jessup's fire, that the enemy broke and fled instantly, and, as General Brown said, in his official report, the Major "showed himself again to his own army in a blaze of fire, which defeated or destroyed a very superior force of the enemy."

The height on which the artillery was placed, was now the point where the battle raged, and on the possession of which victory depended. General Drummond, not more astounded than chagrined at the loss of his cannon, determined to recover the height at any cost; while the Americans, with unflinching energy, resolved to keep that which they had so gallantly secured. Silently did they await, in the deep darkness, the approach of the enemy, reserving their fire till it could tell with deadly effect. The British marched up the ascent at a brisk step, until within twenty paces of the summit of the height, when they poured in a rapid fire, and prepared to rush forward with the bayonet. The American line, being directed by the fire of the enemy, returned it with terrible effect, which threw them into momentary confusion; but being rallied, they returned furiously to the attack. A most tremendous conflict ensued; which, for twenty

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235

minutes, continued with violence indescribable. The British line was at last compelled to yield, and to retire down the hill. Yet the American commander knew that the battle was not over. Transporting the wounded to the rear, General Ripley immediately restored his line to order. General Scott's shattered brigade having been consolidated into one battalion, had, during this period, been held in reserve behind the second brigade, under Colonel Leavenworth. It was now ordered to move to Lundy's Lane, and to form with its right towards the Niagara road, and its left in the rear of the artillery.

After the lapse of half an hour, Drummond was heard again advancing to the assault with renovated vigor. The direction at first given by Ripley was again observed. The fire of the Americans was terrible; and the artillery of Major Hindman was served with the greatest skill and coolness, and with most fatal result to the enemy. After the first discharge, the British general threw himself with his entire weight upon the centre of the American line. He was firmly received by the gallant twenty-first regiment; a few platoons only faltering, which were soon restored by General Ripley. Finding that no impression could be made, the whole British line again recoiled, and fell back to the bottom of the hill.

During this second attempt, two gallant charges were led by Scott in person, the first upon the enemy's left, and the second on his right flank, with his consolidated battalion; but having to

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oppose double lines of infantry, his attempts, which would have been decisive had they proved successful, were unavailing. Although he had most fortunately escaped unhurt thus far, subsequently, in passing to the right, he received two severe wounds: regardless of himself, however, he did not quit the field, until he had directed Colonel Leavenworth to unite his battalion with the twenty-fifth regiment, under the command of the brave Jessup. Once again, an hour later, the British general mounted that fatal eminence. Our countrymen, worn down with fatigue, and almost fainting with thirst, nerved themselves a third time, to repel the enemy. This last was more terribly contested than the preceding attempts. The British reached the top of the hill, and the struggle was carried on at the point of the bayonet. Friend and foe were intermingled, and for a short time, the issue of the fight was uncertain; but the Americans, with desperate valor, repulsed their furious assailants, and the whole British line broke and fled. No exertions of their officers could restrain them, or bring them back again to the assault.

Generals Brown and Scott being disabled by severe wounds, General Ripley assumed the command, and made some efforts to obtain the means of removing the captured artillery; but the horses having been killed, and no dragropes being at hand, they were still on the place where they had been captured, when orders were sent to Ripley from General Brown, to collect the wounded, and return to the camp, for the refreshment of the troops.

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The British cannon were therefore left behind, the smaller pieces having first been rolled down the hill. The whole of the troops reached the camp in good order about midnight, after an unmolested march.

This famous battle (known as the battle of Niagara, or of Bridgewater, or of Lundy's or of Lundy's Lane) was the most severely contested, and, in proportion to the numbers engaged, the most destructive to human life, of any that has ever been fought in America. The British force numbered something short of five thousand, including militia and Indians. The American army was, in number, less than three thousand ;* yet on each side nearly nine hundred men were killed, wounded, and missing. The proportion of officers killed and wounded, was unusually large, and showed clearly that, so far as the American army was concerned, our countrymen were as able as they were willing, to meet even the veteran troops which had gained laurels on the battle fields of the old world.

General Brown, vexed that the cannon had been left behind, ordered Ripley to proceed at sunrise, to the heights of Lundy's Lane, and, after burying the dead, to bring away the trophies of victory; but the enemy had 1814. taken possession of the eminence, and Ripley, with not more than sixteen hundred men, and these much worn down by fatigue, found it impossible to execute General Brown's order. He therefore retreated to Fort Erie;

*It is but proper to advise the reader, that the British accounts state, in respect to the numbers engaged, that the American force was much larger than that of their opponents.

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