Effects of the Battle of Chippewa

UNTIL after the battle of Chippewa, English writers had indulged in sneers when alluding to our soldiers; and one of the most popular of the light theatrical performances in London was one in which the characters representing our military leaders were promoted tailors, shoemakers, etc. After that battle, in which an inferior number of Americans had won a decisive victory over British troops, the tone of British writers was changed. "The important fact is," wrote an English author, "that we have now got an enemy who fights as bravely as ourselves. For some time the Americans cut no figure on land. They have now proved to us that they only wanted time to acquire a little discipline. They have now proved to us what they are made of; that they are the same sort of men as those who captured whole armies under Burgoyne and Cornwallis; that they are neither to be frightened nor silenced."

General Brown was impatient to pursue the discomfited army, for he expected Chauncey, with a squadron at the mouth of the Niagara River, to co-operate with him. Much of the next and following days was spent in burying the dead and caring for the wounded; but before the morning of the 8th, a part of Brown's army had crossed the Chippewa in boats. Riall fled down the Niagara River to Queenstown, put some of his troops into Forts George and Mississauga, and established his head-quarters near the lake twenty miles westward. Drummond was mortified by this discomfiture of his veteran troops by what he deemed to be raw Americans, and he resolved to wipe out the stain. He drew most of the troops from York and Burlington Bay, Kingston and Prescott, with a determination to renew the conflict and drive the Americans out of Canada. With a force about one-third greater than that of Brown, he soon advanced to meet the invaders.

Meanwhile Brown, with his whole army, had pushed on to Queenstown and threatened Fort George. There he anxiously waited many days for the arrival of Chauncey's fleet, when, on the 22d of July, he received word that the commander was sick at Sackett's Harbor and his squadron was block-aded there. Abandoning all hope of co-operation from the navy, he ordered the army to fall back to the battle-ground of Chippewa, when their future movements would be governed by circumstances. They did not rest long, for on the 24th the alarming intelligence reached General Brown that Drummond had landed on the eastern shore of the Niagara River below Queenstown with a thousand troops, many of them Wellington's veterans; that a considerable British force occupied Queenstown, and that Riall had joined Drummond with his shattered regiments and a body of loyal Canadians.

Drummond had landed at Lewiston, opposite Queenstown, and Brown suspected his intention to be to seize the American stores at Schlosser. Impressed with this idea, he ordered Scott to march rapidly, with a part of the army, and menace the forts at the mouth of the Niagara River. Toward evening, Scott pushed on with his brigade, Towson's artillery and some mounted men, and saw some British officers leave a house at the verge of the great fall, leap into their saddles and ride rapidly away. Scott, believing only a remnant of the British army were near, dashed into the woods to disperse them, when he found Riall there with a larger force than he had at Chippewa. The peril of the American detachment was extreme. To stand still would be fatal; to retreat would be very hazardous, for it might create a panic in the main army and demoralize the whole. So Scott instantly resolved to fight the overwhelming force; and at sunset a desperate battle was begun, which ended at near midnight.

The British line which Scott encountered was eighteen hundred strong, posted in a slightly crescent form upon an eminence over which Lundy's Lane passed, and on which they had planted a battery. The quick eye of Scott soon discerned a blank between the enemy's left and the river; and he ordered Major Jesup, with his command, to crawl cautiously in the evening twilight through the underbrush that covered the space and turn the British left flank. Jesup obeyed, and was successful. He gained the British rear, and kept back reinforcements sent by Drummond. Meanwhile Scott was hotly engaged with Riall; and General Brown, when apprised of the situation by the booming of great guns and by messengers from the front, had pressed on with his whole army to the conflict. He perceived the key of the enemy's position to be their battery on the hill. Turning to Colonel James Miller of the Twenty-seventh, General Brown asked: "Can you storm that work and take it?" Miller instantly replied, "I'II try." With three hundred men he moved stealthily up the hill in the darkness, along a fence shrouded in luxuriant bushes that hid them from the view of the gunners and their protectors who lay near. When within short musketrange of the battery, they could see the gunners, with their glowing lintstocks, ready to act at the word fire. Selecting good marksmen, Miller directed each to rest his rifle on the fence, select a gunner, and fire at a given signal. They did so. The gunners fell, and Miller and his men rushed forward and captured the battery before the troops, stationed for its protection, could resist.