Unfortunate Movements

The government resolved to retrieve the disaster at Detroit by an invasion of Canada on the Niagara frontier. For this purpose a requisition was made upon Governor Tompkins, of New York, for the militia of that State. He was decidedly in favor of the war. Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last of the Patroons and a patriotic Federalist retired from public life, was commissioned a major-general and placed in chief command of the militia. A desire to wipe out the disgrace of Hull's surrender, burned in the hearts of the people. The New York regiments were speedily filled, and a considerable force was soon concentrated at Lewiston, on the Niagara River; also at Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain, to confront a possible counter-invasion from Canada. Another force was gathered at Greenbush, opposite Albany, where General Dearborn, the commander-in-chief, was stationed. Anticipating an invasion across the Niagara River, the British had gathered a considerable military force on that frontier; and at mid-autumn, before the Americans were prepared to cross the river, some of them occupied a strong position on Queenstown Heights, opposite Lewiston.

At midsummer, hostile demonstrations had been made on Lake Ontario and on the St. Lawrence frontier. Both parties were earnestly seeking the control of those waters, and the preparation of armed vessels on them was vigorously begun. General Bloomfield was in command of the militia in northern New York, and everything betokened warm work on the frontiers soon. At that juncture, General Dearborn concluded an armistice with the British commander in Canada, for a cessation of hostilities along the entire frontier, which he kept in force, contrary to commands from his government, until the close of August. By this armistice, Brock was enabled to concentrate a force on the Detroit River sufficient to compel Hull to surrender. To this fact and his neglect to inform Hull of his intentions are justly chargeable the chief cause of that general's disaster. It did more; it enabled Brock to bring his troops and prisoners to the Niagara frontier without molestation; and it so delayed preparations for war in New York, that on the first of September (1812) Van Rensselaer had at Lewiston only seven hundred men instead of five thousand, as he had been promised, though charged with the double duty of defending the frontier and invading Canada. At length regulars and militia arrived on the Niagara, and toward the middle of October, Van Rensselaer found himself in command of six thousand men, scattered along the river between Lewiston and Buffalo. He then resolved to invade Canada from Lewiston.

The night of the 12th of October was intensely dark. A heavy storm was just ending. In the gloom at three o'clock the next morning, Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, in command of six hundred men, was on the shore of the river at Lewiston, prepared to cross the swift-running stream and storm the British works on Queenstown Heights. But only thirteen boats were there to take the troops over, and in these he passed with less than one-half his force. The enemy were on the alert, and had discovered the movements of the Americans; and when Van Rensselaer landed, they assailed his little force with musketry and a small field-piece. This assault was responded to by a battery on Lewiston Heights, when the British turned and fled toward Queenstown. They were followed by regulars, under Captain John E. Wool (the senior in command in the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel Chrystie, who was in a boat that had lost its way in the darkness and did not arrive until between eight and nine o'clock), who pushed gallantly up the hill, pressed the British back to the plateau on which Queenstown stands, fought them there, and finally gained possession of Queenstown Heights. Van Rensselaer had followed with the militia, and was so severely wounded that he was compelled to relinquish the command and recross the river. A bullet had passed through the fleshy part of both of Wool's thighs, but, unmindful of his wounds, that gallant soldier would neither leave the field nor relinquish the command until the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Chrystie between eight and nine o'clock.