Battle of Lundy’s Lane

At midnight, Brown, having unsuccessfully tried for six hours, to force the British from their position, retreated to Chippewa.

Continuing Canada Versus USA 1812-1814,
with a selection from The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 15 by Agnes M. Machar published in 1905. This selection is presented in 7 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Canada Versus USA 1812-1814.

The force with which it was now expected, under Wilkinson and Hampton, to make an easy conquest of Lower Canada, amounted to twenty-one thousand men, opposed to three thou sand British regulars in Lower Canada —- strongly supported, however, by a gallant and enthusiastic French-Canadian militia, who proved themselves in the day of trial no less loyal and un flinching than their Upper Canadian brothers. Wilkinson’s concerted attack upon Kingston from Sackett’s Harbor was averted by the timely throwing of two thousand troops into the Kingston garrison, which changed Wilkinson’s plans, and sent him down the St. Lawrence to join Hampton—followed, however, by British schooners and gunboats, and by a corps of observation, under Colonel Morrison, which made a descent upon him at Chrysler’s Farm on the Canadian shore of the river —- mid-way between Kingston and Montreal ——-and forced him to retreat, completely routed, though numbering two to :one of the British force, the scattered American force precipitately taking to their boats and hastening down the river.

Amid these scenes of devastation the campaign of 1813 closed. The next year a large American force, under General Brown, harassed the Niagara frontier. An incursion on Port Dover took place, and the entire village was burned down without the slightest provocation. In July Fort Erie surrendered, without firing a shot, to two strong brigades under Generals Scott and Ripley, Major Buck, then in command, thinking it would be a useless sacrifice of life to hold out with a garrison of one hundred seventy against four thousand assailants. On the whole frontier there were only one thousand seven hundred eighty British troops, opposed to a strong American force. General Riall, however, the British commander on the frontier, was determined to check the enemy’s advance by a vigorous resistance.

A strong American force, led by General Brown, marched down the river to Chippewa, the extreme right of the British position. Notwithstanding the greatly superior numbers of the Americans — double those of the British troops — and the strong position which Brown had taken up, Riall, having received reinforcements from Toronto, resolved to attack the enemy. Again and again his columns gallantly charged against the solid Ameri can line, but were forced back by their formidable fire; and Riall, after suffering severe loss, had to order a retreat toward Niagara. The unsuccessful attempt was, at least, sufficiently demonstrative of British and Canadian pluck, and seems to have had the effect of deterring the enemy from following up his success even so far as to molest the retreating force. His army, however, advanced leisurely, and occupied Queenston —- his light infantry and Indians making marauding incursions in every direction, burning the village of St. David’s and plundering and destroy ing the property of the unhappy colonists whom the Americans had been so benevolently desirous to free from British tyranny.

General Brown, disappointed in his expectation of being assisted to take Fort George and Fort Niagara by Chauncey’s fleet —- now effectually held in check by Commodore Yeo, and finding the garrison on the qui vive —- retreated to Chippewa, followed by Riall, who took up a position close to the American force at Lundy’s Lane. General Drummond having heard at Kings ton of Brown’s advance and the defeat of Chippewa, hastened to Niagara, where, finding that Riall had gone on before him, he sent Colonel Tucker, on the American side of the river, against a detachment at Lewiston, while he himself pushed on to Queens ton. From thence, the enemy having disappeared from Lewis ton, he sent Tucker back to Niagara, and moved on with eight hundred regulars to Lundy’s Lane, where he found that Riall had commenced a retreat; Scott, who had advanced to the Falls, having sent for Brown to come on with the rest of his force to join him.

The retreat was speedily countermanded by Drummond, who with one thousand six hundred men, found himself confronted with an American force of five thousand, part of which had already arrived within six hundred yards when the British General arrived —- the engagement commencing almost before he had completed his formation —- and established a battery on the slight eminence now crowned by an observatory. From thence, on a summer’s day, the eye can take in a large expanse of sunny, peaceful country, rich green woods, peach orchards and vine yards, tranquil homesteads, and fields of the richest, softest green. But on that July afternoon, as evening drew on, the peaceful landscape was clouded by heavy sulfurous smoke, the sweet summer air was filled with the dull boom of artillery, the rattle of volleys of musketry, the sharp crack of the rifle, the shout of the charge, and the groans of the dying —— all blending strangely with the solemn, unceasing roar of the great cataract close by. The combat —- the most sanguinary and most fiercely contested of the war —- raged with terrible carnage and desperate obstinacy till the summer darkness closed over the scene, and the moon rose to cast a dim and uncertain light over the bloody field.

At one time the enemy had captured several of the British cannon, but they were speedily recovered, with one of the enemy’s guns in addition. In the darkness strange mistakes occurred, pieces of artillery being exchanged during the charges made after nightfall. About nine a brief lull in the fighting occurred, while the rear-guard of the American force under General Brown took the place of Scott’s brigade, which had suffered severely. Riall’s retiring division now came up —- with two guns and four hundred militia —- one thousand two hundred strong, and between the two forces thus strengthened, the fierce contest was renewed. “Nothing,” says an eye-witness, “could have been more terrible, nor yet more solemn, than this midnight contest.” The desperate charges of the enemy were succeeded by a deathlike silence, interrupted only by the groans of the dying and the dull sound of the Falls of Niagara, while the adverse lines were now and then dimly discerned through the moonlight by the gleam of their arms.

These anxious pauses were succeeded by a blaze of musketry along the lines, and by a repetition of the most desperate charges from the enemy, which the British regulars and militia received with the most unshaken firmness. At midnight, Brown, having unsuccessfully tried for six hours, with his force of five thousand against half that number, to force the British from their position, retreated to Chippewa with a loss of nine hundred thirty —- that on the British side amounting to eight hundred seventy. Generals Scott and Brown were severely wounded, as was also General Drummond, though he retained his command, notwithstanding, to the end of the action. Next day a fresh demonstration was planned but abandoned, and Brown, on the 27th, having burned Street’s mills, destroyed the bridge over the Chippewa Creek, and thrown his impedimenla and provisions into the river, retired on Fort Erie, Drummond’s light infantry, cavalry, and Indians following in pursuit.

Agnes M. Machar begins here. David Ramsay begins here.

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