THE FLAG OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH. 10

The Twenty-fifth, under Jesup, 11 with their regimental banner pierced with scores of bullet-holes received at Chippewa and in this engagement, reposed a moment after their victory on the river side of the Queenston Road, where the village of Drummondsville now stands, while the second brigade, skillfully handled by Ripley, bore the brunt of the battle in the fierce contention for the battery on the height. Yet the others were by no means idle. Every corps was engaged in the desperate struggle, which had continued for more than two hours, the way of the combatants lighted only by fitful gleams of the moon darting through the murky battle-clouds, and the lurid flashes of exploding powder.

Both parties were re-enforced during the struggle; the British by Colonel Scott’s command, as we have seen, and the Americans by a part of Porter’s brigade, which took post on Ripley’s left, and participated in the closing events of the battle. The enemy was beaten off by sheer hard blows given by the muscle of indomitable Perseverance, but at the expense of precious blood. Generals Brown and Scott were severely wounded and borne from the field, and the active command devolved on General Ripley, the senior officer on duty. 12

When the absolute repulse of the enemy was manifest, and General Brown observed great numbers of stragglers in all directions from the broken regiments, he ordered the new commander to fall back with the troops to Chippewa, there reorganize the shattered battalions, give them a little rest and refreshments, and return to the field of conflict by daydawn, so as to secure the fruits of victory by holding the ground and securing the captured cannon, which, on account of a lack of horses, harness, or drag-ropes, could not he removed at once. Ripley had not moved from Chippewa when the day dawned, and Brown, disappointed and angered by his tardiness, ordered his own staff to go to the commanders of corps and direct them to be promptly prepared to march. It was sunrise before the army crossed the Chippewa, and they were halted by Ripley at the Bridgewater Mills, a mile from the battle-ground, where he was informed that the enemy was again in possession of the heights of Lundy’s Lane and his cannon, had been re-enforced, and was too strong to be attacked by a less force than the entire army of the Niagara with any promise of success. With this information Ripley returned to head-quarters. The commanding general was irritated. He resolved not to trust the brigadier with the command of the army any longer than necessity required; and he dispatched a courier to Sackett’s Harbor with an order for General Gaines to come and take the temporary leadership of the Niagara forces. 13 Ripley’s delay had doubtless deprived the Americans of all the substantial advantages of victory, for the enemy was allowed to return, reoccupy the field of battle, and retake the captured cannon, excepting one beautiful brass 6-pounder, which was presented to Colonel Miller’s regiment on the spot. This they bore away with them as a precious trophy of their prowess. The remainder were retaken by the British a few hours afterward. 14

Thus ended the sanguinary BATTLE OF NIAGARA FALLS, sometimes called Lundy’s Lane, and sometimes Bridgewater. 15 It has few parallels in history in its wealth of gallant deeds. It was fought wholly in the shadows of a summer evening between sunset and midnight. To the eye and ear of a distant spectator it must have been a sublime experience. Above was a serene sky, a placid moon in its wane, and innumerable stars – a vision of Beauty and Peace; below was the sulphurous smoke of battle, like a dense thunder-cloud on the horizon, out of which came the quick flashes of lightning and the bellowing of the echoes of its voice – a vision of Horror and Strife. Musket, rocket, and cannon cracking, hissing, and booming; and the clash of sabre and bayonet, with the cries of human voices, made a horrid din that commingled with the awful, solemn roar of the great cataract hard by, whose muffled thunder-tones rolled on, on, forever, in infinite grandeur when the puny drum had ceased to beat, and silence had settled upon the field of carnage. There the dead were buried, and the mighty diapason of the flood was their requiem.

Major General Brown was twice severely wounded, yet he kept the saddle until the victory was won. First a musket-ball passed through his right thigh; and a few minutes afterward the gallant Captain Spencer, his aid-de-camp, received a mortal wound. 16 Then came a ball of some kind which struck Brown in the side, not lacerating, but severely contusing it. Both hurts were so severe that the general felt doubtful of his ability to keep his seat, and so informed Major Wood, his confidential friend. That brave officer, deeply engaged in the battle, exclaimed, "Never mind, my dear general, you are winning the greatest battle ever gained for your country!" The enemy were soon repulsed, and the general, supported by Captain Austin, his only remaining aid, moved from the field, leaving the command, as we have seen, with General Ripley. Brown rapidly recovered, and was able to resume the command of the army of the Niagara early in September.

Scott suffered intensely, and for a month his recovery was considered doubtful. He was finally removed to the house of a friend (Mr. Brisbane) in Batavia, where kind nursing made his convalescence rapid. At length, when able to bear the motions of a litter, he was carried on the shoulders of gentlemen of the country from town to town, to the house of a friend (Mr. Nicholas) in Geneva, where he remained until he was able to resume his journey, when he went to Philadelphia, and placed himself in charge of the eminent Doctors Physic and Chapman, of that city. He was every where received with demonstrations of the warmest respect and admiration for his personal achievements, and as the representative of the now glorious army of the Niagara. 17 From Philadelphia he passed on to Baltimore early in September, then threatened by the British, who had just destroyed the public buildings of the national capital; and on the 16th of October he was so far recovered as to be able to take command of the Tenth Military District, whose head-quarters were at Washington City. Honors were conferred upon him by public bodies in many places. The Congress of the United States, by a resolution on the 8th of November, 1814, voted him the thanks of the nation, and requested the President to have a gold medal, with suitable devices, struck in his honor, and presented to him. 18

The Legislatures of Virginia [February 12, 1816.] and New York [February, 1816.] thanked him, and each voted him an elegant sword. 19 The Society of the Cincinnati, founded by Washington and his companions in arms, elected him an honorary member [1815.], and many towns and counties were named in his honor in the course of time. He was breveted a major general; and for almost fifty years longer he served his country actively in its military operations, ten of them as general-in-chief. When, in the autumn of 1861, the great Civil War assumed immense proportions, the Nestor of the republic, feeling the disabilities of increasing physical infirmities, retired from active service, bearing the commission given him a few years before of lieutenant general. 20

I visited the theatre of events described in this and a part of the preceding chapter in the summer of 1860. I was at Niagara Falls, as already observed (page 412), on the evening of the 16th of August. On the following morning, accompanied by Peter A. Porter, Esq., son of General Peter B. Porter (and conveyed in his carriage), I crossed the Niagara on the great Suspension Bridge, and rode up to the Chippewa battle-ground. We went over the great chasm at about ten o’clock, and halted at Chippewa Village, where we were joined by Colonel James Cummings, a venerable Canadian, seventy-two years of age, who was an aid to General Riall in the battle of the 5th of July, 1814. 21 He seemed as vigorous as most men at sixty, and we were fortunate in having the company of so good a cicerone, for he was familiar with every place and event of that battle. He owns a part of the land whereon it was fought; has resided near there for more than fifty years, and is full of reminiscences of the past. He cherishes, as a precious heir-loom for his family, the cocked hat and plume which he wore when he was fighting for his king and country.

After viewing the different portions of the battle-ground at Street’s Creek and Chippewa Plains, and making the sketches printed on pages 806, ’7 [TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The sketch printed on page 807 is actually the drawing of the remains of the tête-de-pont battery described immediately below – WDC, 10/29/2001.], and ’8, 22 we returned to the village, where I made a drawing of the remains of the tête-de-pont battery, 23 not far from the mansion of Colonel Cummings. There we partook of some refreshments, and, accompanied by the colonel, rode up to the mouth of Lyon’s Creek, where the Americans prepared to cross the Chippewa and flank the British, causing Riall, as we have observed, 24 to hasten back to Queenston. On returning to Chippewa we spent an hour with Colonel Cummings and his family, and then left with enduring recollections of time spent pleasantly and profitably. We rode slowly by the great cataract, observing the site of the Widow Wilson’s house, near Table Rock, the stupendous falls, and the grand flood as it rushes in wild and resistless energy toward the great bend in the river at the seething whirlpool.

At Drummondville, a pleasant little town of about five hundred inhabitants, skirting the highway from Chippewa to Queenston, we turned into Lundy’s Lane, and rode to the top of the hill on which stood the British battery captured by Miller. It is a pleasant spot, and sufficiently elevated to command extensive views of the country in Canada and New York. On the crown of the hill was the dwelling of Mr. Fraleigh and a Methodist church; and on the slope toward Drummondville was a small cemetery, a view of which may be seen on page 818. A little to the left of the large tree in that picture was the site of the British battery taken by Miller. Near the middle of that cemetery was the grave and monument of Lieutenant Colonel Bisshopp, delineated on page 628; and on its western margin, close by the fence, was the grave of Captain Abraham F. Hull, who appears somewhat conspicuously in the narrative of the surrender of Detroit by his father, General William Hull, in the summer of 1812. On the spot where he fell, gallantly fighting in the battle of Niagara, the brother officers of Captain Hull erected a wooden slab, with a suitable inscription, to mark the spot; 25 and in after years his friends erected the one of marble, which, with an inscription, now (1867) stands at the head of his grave, seen near the fence in the picture on page 818. 26

Fronting on Lundy’s Lane, a little northwestward of the position of the British battery, was an observatory, made of timbers, and latticed. It was one hundred and thirty feet in height, and was ascended on the interior by one hundred and twenty-five steps. We climbed wearily to the top, and were richly rewarded for the toil by a magnificent panoramic view of the surrounding country, including in the vision, by the aid of a telescope, the statue of Brock on its lofty pedestal on the Heights of Queenston. Westward we looked far over the Canadian peninsula to the broken country around the Beaver Dam region, and eastward as far over the cultivated lands of the State of New York, while at our feet was the great cataract, which gave a tremor to the pile of timber work on which we stood, and formed a conception in the mind of the amazing power of that mighty pouring flood. An elderly man, who acted as guide to the surrounding scenery as seen from the observatory, ascended with us, and, in monotonous tone, began his well-learned task of repeating the record of historical events there. We only wanted to know the exact locality of certain incidents of the battle, and, after four times preventing him going farther in his tedious details than the words "In the year one thousand eight hundred and fourteen," we obtained what we wished, and descended. We climbed into the little cemetery, and I sketched the tomb of Bisshopp and the view on page 818, and at the same time Mr. Porter made a neat pencil drawing for me of a small house in Drummondville, which was used as a hospital after the battle, as seen from Bisshopp’s grave. It is copied in the annexed engraving.

On returning to the Suspension Bridge to recross the river, we observed large crowds of people on both banks, above and below the aerial highway, who had come to see the perilous feats of Blondin and a rival upon slack ropes stretched across the river from bank to bank. They were both performing at the same time, cheered on by their respective friends, one above and the other below the bridge. Beneath these daring acrobats was the foaming river, rushing down hill to the great whirlpool at the rate of thirty miles an hour. It was an unpleasant spectacle, for a sense of fearful danger oppressed the mind of the beholder. We rode slowly across the bridge, viewing the foolish and yet heroic performances of both young men, and arrived at Niagara Falls village in time for a late dinner. Toward evening I rode down to Queenston, behind a blind horse, to make the visits on the Canadian peninsula described in preceding chapters. 27

General Ripley’s tardiness, if not absolute disobedience, as we have observed, left the battle-field of Niagara, so gloriously won by the Americans, in the possession of the foe on the morning of the 26th of July. At that time Generals Brown and Scott, Major Jesup, and other wounded officers, were placed in boats for conveyance to Buffalo, and they departed with the expectation that Ripley would hold the strong position at Chippewa until the arrival of re-enforcements. The commanding general had scarcely disappeared behind Navy Island in his upward voyage when Ripley ordered the destruction of the military works and bridge, and some of his own stores at Chippewa, and made a precipitate flight with the whole army to the Black Rock Ferry, a short distance below Fort Erie. His intention was to lead the whole army across the river, and utterly abandon Canada. This design would have been accomplished had not the firmness of the principal officers, by a vehement opposition, prevented. Ripley crossed the river to Black Rock, where Brown lay, to get from him an order for the army to pass over; but that indignant commander not only refused, but treated the brigadier with scorn. 28 Ripley returned, and, by order of General Brown, he led the army to a good position, just above Fort Erie, along the lake shore, encamped it there, and proceeded to strengthen the old works, and to construct new and more extensive ones preparatory to an expected siege. 29 General Porter, at about the same time, issued a stirring appeal to his fellow-citizens, asking for four thousand volunteers.

REMAINS OF DOUGLASS’S BATTERY AND FORT ERIE. 30

While Tucker was busy in the invasion at Black Rock, Drummond opened fire with some 24-pounders in front of Fort Erie; but from that time until the 7th cannonading was seldom heard. Both parties were laboring intensely in preparing for the impending battle, Drummond in constructing works for a siege and assault, and Ripley in preparations for a defense. On that day most of the new works about Fort Erie were completed. Towson’s and Douglass’s batteries were in readiness for action. The parapeted breastworks from Fort Erie to Towson’s Battery were completed; two ditches were dug in front of them, and abatis were laid in continuous line from Douglass’s Battery around the front of the fort and breastworks to Towson’s, and from thence to the lake shore. Between Towson’s and the old fort two other batteries had been constructed. One, mounting two guns, was placed in command of Captain Biddle, and the other, also two guns, was put in charge of Lieutenant Fontaine. The dragoons, infantry, riflemen, and volunteers were encamped between the southwestern ramparts and the water; and the artillery, under Major Hindman, were stationed in the old fort. 31

General Gaines 32 arrived at the camp at Fort Erie on the 5th [August, 1814.], and was welcomed with delight by the little army. He immediately assumed the chief command, and his presence inspired them with confidence and courage. General Ripley, who had labored faithfully in preparations for defense, yet not without gloomy forebodings, resumed the command of his brigade, and perfect good feeling prevailed.

Gaines was convinced that Drummond intended to resort to a direct assault should his cannonading prove ineffectual, and, with this impression, he kept the garrison continually on the alert. Men were detailed for night service in such manner that part were resting and part were under arms continually. The guns in the batteries had been charged afresh several evenings in succession with a variety of shot; dark lanterns were kept burning, and linstocks ready for firing were near every cannon. The engineers and the commanding officer watched every movement with the eyes of experts, and they agreed in the belief that an assault would be made on the night of the 14th. On that evening Gaines visited and inspected every part of the works, gave explicit directions to every officer, and words of encouragement to the men; and Engineers M‘Ree and Wood examined every part of the intrenchments most carefully. In the mean time, while the garrison were on evening parade, a shell came screaming across the space between the hostile camps, fell within the American lines, and lodged in an almost empty magazine, which was blown up with a tremendous report. The enemy huzzaed long and loud, supposing they had destroyed one of Gaines’s chief magazines. Hoping to profit by the confusion and loss, they prepared at once to assail the American works. Their gun-flints were removed from their muskets, scaling-ladders were collected, and the arrangements of the columns for attack were carefully made in accordance with a secret order 33 issued by Drummond, and special secret instructions given to Lieutenant Colonels Scott, Fischer, and Drummond.

An ominous silence prevailed in both camps at midnight of the 14th. It was the lull before the bursting forth of the tempest in its fury. It was not the silence of inactivity on the part of the British; on the contrary, there was uncommon but cautious stirring within their lines. In the American camp alone, where, as the night wore away, a doubt of immediate danger and the effects of great fatigue were wooing the garrison to slumber, did the quiet of rest prevail. It was soon broken. At two o’clock in the morning an alarm came from a picket-guard of one hundred men, commanded by Lieutenant Belknap, of the Twenty-third Infantry, who were posted in the direction of the enemy’s camp to watch their movements. The duties of this picket were important and perilous, but were intrusted to good hands. Belknap managed the affair with skill and bravery. 34 The sky was overhung with clouds. Sound, not sight, gave intelligence of the approach of the enemy. Belknap fired an alarm, and then fell steadily back to camp. The enemy came dashing on in the gloom, full fifteen hundred strong, under Lieutenant Colonel Fischer, and charged furiously upon Towson’s Battery and the abatis on the extreme left, between that work and the lake shore. They expected to find the Americans asleep, but were mistaken. Colonel Miller’s brave Twenty-first Regiment, then in charge of Major Wood, of the Engineers, was behind the abatis, and Towson’s artillerists, gallantly supported on the right by the Twenty-third Regiment, were on the alert. At a signal, Towson’s long 24-pounders sent forth such a continuous stream of flame from the summit of Snake Hill that the foe called it the "Yankee Light-house." At the same instant a bright flame beamed forth from the line of the Twenty-first, and sent a brilliant illumination high and far, and revealed the position of the enemy to the garrison. It was as evanescent as the light of the Roman candle of the pyrotechnic, and in a few moments heaviest gloom settled upon the scene, relieved only by the flashes of the cannon and musketry.

Almost simultaneously with this movement on the extreme left, an assault was made on the right by five hundred infantry and artillery, with a reserve of Indians, composing the centre and left columns of the enemy, under Lieutenant Colonels Drummond and Scott. They advanced rapidly, under a blaze of fire from cannon and musketry – Drummond toward old Fort Erie, which the mortified British had determined to recover at all hazards, and Scott toward the Douglass Battery and the connecting intrenchments. The latter were received by the veteran Ninth, under the command of Captain Foster, and Captains Broughton and Harding’s companies of New York and Pennsylvania Volunteers, aided by a 6-pounder between Douglass Battery and the lake shore, managed by Major M‘Ree, the chief engineer. The enemy was soon repulsed in this quarter; but the centre, led by Lieutenant Colonel Drummond, was not long kept in check. It approached every assailable point of the fort at once. They brought scaling-ladders, and, with the greatest coolness and bravery, attempted to force an entrance over the walls. Captain Williams, and Lieutenants Macdonough and Watmough, in the fort, met them gallantly, and twice repulsed them. Then Drummond, taking advantage of the covering of a thick pall of gunpowder smoke which hung low, went silently around the ditch, and with scaling-ladders ascended to the parapet with great celerity, and gained a secure footing there with one hundred of the Royal Artillery before any effectual opposition could be made. Already the exasperated Drummond, goaded almost to madness by the murderous repulses which he had endured, had given orders to show no mercy to the "damned Yankees," 35 and had actually stationed a body of painted savages near, with instructions to rush into the fort when the regulars should get possession of it, and assist in the general massacre. 36 Finding himself now in actual possession of a part of the fort, he instantly directed his men to charge upon the garrison with pike and bayonet, and to "show no mercy." Most of the American officers and many of the men received deadly wounds. Among the former was Lieutenant Macdonough. He was severely hurt, and demanded quarter. It was refused by Lieutenant Colonel Drummond. The lieutenant then seized a handspike, and boldly defended himself until he was shot down with a pistol by the monster who had refused him mercy, and who often reiterated the order, "Give the damned Yankees no quarter!" He soon met his deserved fate, for he was shot through the heart, was severely bayoneted, and fell dead by the side of his own victim. 37

The battle now raged with increased fury on the right, while on the left the enemy was repulsed at every point and put to flight. Thence, and from the centre, Gaines promptly ordered re-enforcements. They were quickly sent by Ripley and Porter, while Captain Fanning kept up a spirited cannonading on the enemy, now to be seen approaching the fort, for the day had dawned. The enemy still held the bastion, in spite of all efforts to dislodge them. Hindman and Trimble had failed in their attempts to drive them out, when Captain Birdsall, of the Fourth Rifle Regiment, rushed in through the gateway, and with some infantry charged the foe. They were repulsed, and the captain was severely wounded. Then a detachment from the Eleventh, Nineteenth, and Twenty-second Infantry, under Captain Foster, of the Eleventh, was introduced into the interior bastion for the purpose of charging the enemy. The movement was gallantly made – Foster was accompanied by Major Hall, the assistant inspector general – but, owing to the narrowness of the passage, it failed. It was often repeated, and as often checked; yet these attacks greatly diminished the number of combatants in the bastion. A more furious charge was about to be made, when, says an eye-witness, "Every sound was hushed by the sense of an unnatural tremor beneath our feet, like the first heave of an earthquake. Almost at the same instant the centre of the bastion burst up with a terrific explosion, and a jet of flame, mingled with fragments of timber, earth, stone, and bodies of men, rose to the height of one or two hundred feet in the air, and fell in a shower of ruins to a great distance all around." 38

This explosion, so destructive and appalling, was almost the final and decisive blow to the British in the contest. 39 It was followed immediately by a galling cannonade, opened by Biddle and Fanning, and in a few moments the British broke and fled to their intrenchments, leaving on the field two hundred and twenty-one killed, one hundred and seventy-four wounded, and one hundred and eighty-six prisoners. Some of their slightly wounded were borne away. The loss of the Americans was seventeen killed, fifty-six wounded, and eleven missing. Among the officers lost were Captain Williams and Lieutenant Macdonough, killed; Lieutenant Watmough, severely wounded, and Lieutenant Fontaine, who was blown into the ranks of the Indians when the bastion exploded, but was not severely hurt. These were of the artillery, and were all injured in defending the bastion. Captain Biddle, of the artillery, had been previously injured, and Watmough had also received a contusion. Of the infantry officers injured were Captain Birdsall, Lieutenants Bushnell and Brown, and Ensign Cisna, wounded in defending the fort, and Lieutenant Belknap, wounded in defending the picket-guard which he commanded.

General Gaines called the affair a "handsome victory," not merely a defense and a repulse, 40 and in this opinion the impartial historian must agree. He spoke in highest terms of all his officers and men, and particularly of the good conduct of Generals Ripley and Porter, Captain Towson, and Majors Hindman, M‘Ree, and Wood. The intelligence of the event was received with great joy throughout the country; and for his gallant conduct and valuable services at this time, and in the second siege of Fort Erie, which soon followed, General Gaines received substantial honors. On the 14th of September he was breveted a major general, and on the 3d of November the President approved of the action of the national Congress in voting him the thanks of the nation and ordering a gold medal, with suitable devices (see next page), to be struck and presented to him. The three great states of New York, Virginia, and Tennessee each rewarded him with resolutions and an elegant sword.

GENERAL GAINES’S MEDAL. 41

There were drawbacks upon the joy and the honors of the victory besides those of the loss of life in the conflict, for two of the three schooners that lay at anchor off the fort, as we have observed, were captured by the enemy, and on the day succeeding the victory a marauding party brought dishonor upon the American name at Port Talbot, on the Canada shore. The schooners Ohio and Somers were captured on the night of the 12th of August by Captain Dobbs, of the Royal Navy, and seventy-five men in nine boats. They were taken down the river halfway to Chippewa and secured, but the Porcupine beat off her assailants. 42 The marauders referred to were a party of one hundred Americans and Indians, who landed at Port Talbot on the night of the 16th, and robbed about fifty families of valuable property, such as horses, household furniture, and wearing apparel, and several respectable citizens were carried off as prisoners of war; one of them, Mr. Barnwell, was a member of the Canadian Assembly. As a dutiful historian I record the affair, but with shame. Happily, such conduct on the part of the Americans was so rare that these pages have not been often stained by the recital.

Now was Brown’s golden opportunity, and he improved it. A sortie was planned, and the time appointed for its execution the morning of the 17th of September. He resolved, as he said, "to storm the batteries, destroy the cannon, and roughly handle the brigade upon duty before those in reserve [at the camp] could be brought into action." 43 His preparations were made with great secrecy. He knew the hazards of the enterprise, and desired the full co-operation of his officers. He sounded their opinions as well as he might without fully disclosing his designs. They were not in consonance with his own; and he made his preparations in a manner to conceal his intentions from the army until all should be in readiness, for he determined to attempt the bold design as soon as Porter should join him with his militia re-enforcements. 44 These came, two thousand strong, and on the morning of the 17th the commanding general explained his plans to General Ripley (his second in command), his adjutant general, and engineers. All evinced a desire for hearty co-operation excepting General Ripley, who considered the enterprise a hopeless one, and desired to have nothing to do with it. 45

General Porter 46 and his command moved from the encampment at noon, and, following Lieutenants Riddle and Frazer through the woods, reached a position within a few rods of the British right wing at a quarter before three o’clock, before their movement was even suspected by the enemy. An assault was immediately commenced. It was a complete surprise, and the startled enemy on that flank fell back and left the Americans in possession of the ground. The batteries Nos. 3 and 4 were immediately stormed, and, after a close and fierce contest for about thirty minutes, both were carried. This triumph was followed by the capture of the block-house in the rear of No. 3. The garrison were made prisoners, the cannon and carriages were destroyed, and the magazine blown up. Porter’s victory was complete, but it was obtained at a fearful cost. His three principal leaders, namely, General Davis, Colonel Gibson, and Lieutenant Colonel Wood, all fell mortally wounded; and the commands of the two latter officers devolved respectively on Lieutenant Colonel M‘Donald and Major Brooks.

Notwithstanding Drummond sent strong re-enforcements from his camp to the imperiled British line of action, the object of the sortie was fully accomplished. The British advanced works were captured and destroyed, and Fort Erie was saved, with Buffalo and the public stores on that frontier, and possibly all Western New York. 47

The "hopes of the enemy" were indeed "blasted;" and, after hastily collecting his scattered forces, Drummond broke up his encampment on the night of the 21st, and retired to Riall’s old and partially demolished intrenchments behind Chippewa Creek. So sudden and precipitate was his flight that he abandoned some of his stores in front of Fort Erie, and destroyed others at Frenchman’s Creek, on the line of his retreat. It has been said, in praise of British courage and pugnacity, that they "never know when they are whipped," and such seems to have been the case in the present instance, for General L. De Watteville, writing in the camp two days after the action, spoke of the "repulse of the Americans at every point;" 48 and General Drummond, in a later dispatch, also spoke of a "repulse of an American army of five thousand men by an inconsiderable number of British troops." 49

This victory, following so soon those at Chippewa and Niagara Falls, and occurring so nearly simultaneously with the glorious one on land and water at Plattsburg, and the expulsion of the enemy from before Baltimore, diffused unusual joy throughout the country, and dispelled, in a measure, the gloom which had overspread the whole land because of the capture of the national capital by the British less than a month before. 50

General Brown, in his official report of the affair [September 29, 1814.], gave a generous list of heroes, with allusions to their gallant deeds, 51 and the loyal public hastened to honor them individually and collectively. The national Congress, by a resolution, approved by the President of the Republic on the 3d of November [1814.], awarded the thanks of the nation and a gold medal, with suitable devices, to each of the general officers. 52

To Generals Porter 56 and Ripley, 57 as well as to Scott, Gaines, and Miller, as we have already observed, the National Congress awarded the thanks of the nation, and a gift of a gold medal to each; and to Ripley the States of New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Georgia each gave expression of approbation, and visible honorary tokens of their appreciation of his services. The spirits of all the general officers in the Army of Niagara at that time, and of nearly all of the subordinate officers, have passed away from earth, but their memories are cherished with honor and affection. And of all the rank and file of that army, whose existence as an organization ended soon after the siege and defense of Fort Erie, very few remain among us, and these are men "with the snow that never melts" upon their heads. Fifty-three years or more have elapsed since they were there in arms for their country. 58

General Izard was soon in command of almost eight thousand troops, and prepared to march upon Drummond. Leaving Lieutenant Colonel Hindman and a sufficient garrison to hold Fort Erie, he moved with his army toward Chippewa, and vainly endeavored to draw the enemy out. He was informed that there was a considerable quantity of grain belonging to the British at Cook’s Mill, on Lyon’s Creek, and on the morning of the 18th of October he sent General Bissell, with about nine hundred of his own brigade, a company of riflemen under Captain Irvine, and a squadron of dragoons commanded by Captain Anspaugh, with instructions to capture or destroy it. They reached the vicinity of the mill that night, and encamped. Two companies, under Captain Dorman and Lieutenant Horrel, with Irvine’s riflemen, were sent across the creek as pickets for the security of the main body, and Lieutenant Gassaway, 59 at the head of a small party, was posted still more in advance, on the Chippewa Road. At midnight a detachment of Glengary infantry attacked these pickets, and were repulsed; and early in the morning Colonel Murray, with detachments from three regular regiments, the Glengary infantry, some dragoons and rocketeers, and a field-piece, renewed the attack. For fifteen minutes these gallant few of Bissell’s men maintained their ground, when his main body came up to their support. Colonel Pinckney, with his Fifth Regiment, was ordered to turn the right flank of the enemy, and cut off his field-piece, while Major Barnard advanced in front with instructions to make free use of the bayonet. These orders were quickly and effectively carried into execution, and, after some very sharp fighting by both parties, the British fell back in confusion and fled, leaving their killed and many of their wounded in the field, with a few prisoners. The fugitives were pursued some distance, when Bissell called back his men. The British fled to the main camp at Chippewa, and the Americans destroyed about two hundred bushels of wheat at the mill. The loss of the former was not exactly ascertained, but is supposed to have been about one hundred and fifty in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The Americans lost twelve killed, fifty-four wounded, including five officers, and one man made prisoner. Satisfied that he could not withstand the increased power of the Army of Niagara, physically and morally, Drummond now fell back to Fort George and Burlington Heights. 60

General Izard clearly perceived that farther offensive operations on the peninsula so late in the season would be imprudent, and perhaps extremely perilous to his army. He fell back from Street’s Creek to the Black Rock Ferry. Soon afterward the whole army crossed to the American side and abandoned Canada. General Winder, who had lately arrived from Baltimore, led General Brown’s infantry to Sackett’s Harbor. About a thousand men were sent to Greenbush, opposite Albany, on the Hudson; some of the troops commenced the erection of huts for winter quarters, and the remainder, excepting the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Regiments under General Miller, who went to Erie, were cantoned in that vicinity. 61 Knowing Fort Erie to be of little service, Izard, after consulting Major Totten, of the Engineers, and others, caused it to be mined, and on the 5th of November it was blown up and laid in ruins. So it has remained until now. 62

I was at Fort Erie and other distinguished places near, and in Buffalo, a day or two before I visited the battle-grounds of Chippewa and Niagara in August, 1860. It was my good fortune to have the company, on that occasion, of the venerable and war-scarred soldier of 1812, Captain (now Commodore) Stephen Champlin, of the United States Navy, whose gallant exploits on Lake Erie with the brave Perry have been already recorded in this work. 63 When he learned my errand he seemed to forget his painful wound, unhealed since he received it in the naval service in 1814, and, ordering his light carriage, he took me to every place of interest to the historian, the student, and the stranger.

On our way we passed old Fort Erie Mill, on the margin of the foot of the lake, which stood there during the war, as many scars and ball-holes still in its clapboards fully attest. On the left of the mill, delineated in the engraving, across the river, upon a high bank, is seen Fort Porter, and in the extreme distance on the right is seen the wharf of the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway Company. On our right, as we passed on to the fort, an elevated ridge was pointed out, on which the British batteries were erected for the siege of Fort Erie. No. 1 (see map on page 839), nearest the fort, was on property belonging to Captain Murray, of the Royal Navy, and No. 2 on the premises of Mr. Thompson. I did not ascertain on whose land were the mounds of No. 3. The ruins of all were quite prominent.

We spent about two hours in the hot sun on the site of Fort Erie and the battles, examining the theatre of scenes described in this chapter, and sketching some of the ruins; and, returning to Black Rock, we visited the site of the old navy yard, 64 a little way up Shogeoquady Creek, and called on the venerable James Sloan, the last survivor of the captors of the Caledonia and Adams in the autumn of 1812. 65

Leaving Mr. Sloan, we rode to the office of Dr. Trowbridge, of whom I have already spoken as a physician in Buffalo when the British destroyed it. He was seventy-five years of age, yet vigorous in mind and body. He gave us some interesting particulars of his own experience, and the bravery of the widow St. John. His son accompanied us to the room of the City Councils, where we saw the portrait of Mrs. Merrill (Miss Ransom), who was the first white child born in Western New York, on the domain of the Holland Land Purchase. At a late hour we returned, heated and weary, to the delightful residence of Captain Champlin, in the midst of gardens, and dined. There I saw the elegant straight sword presented to the hero, 66 and the richly-carved easy-chair made of the wood of the Lawrence, Perry’s flag-ship, delineated on page 542.

There, in an elevated open space, within ground one hundred feet square, slightly inclosed, stands a fine monument of marble, twenty-two feet in height, which was erected by the corporate authorities of Buffalo in the autumn of 1852 in commemoration of several officers of the United States Army who were engaged in the War of 1812; also of a celebrated Indian chief, and to mark the spot where the remains of over one thousand persons, which were removed from the city, lie buried. 67 Near the monument (and seen in the foreground on the right) is a tomb of brick, bearing a recumbent slab of marble, over the grave of Captain Williams, who lost his life at Fort Erie. The inscription on it is historical and briefly biographical. 68 Southward of this is a handsomely-carved slab, lying on the ground, placed there in commemoration of a Connecticut soldier killed in the battle of Niagara. 69 Northeasterly of the monument is another slab, over the grave of Captain Wattles; 70 and south of it is another over the grave of Captain Dox. 71

Not far from this public monument, on a gentle, shaded slope, is the grave of General Bennet Riley, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was distinguished in the Seminole War and the contest with Mexico. Over it is a handsome marble monument, bearing a brief inscription. 72 Near this, in the cool shadows of the trees, we lingered some time, when a thunder-peal from the direction of Lake Erie warned us of the approach of a summer shower. We rode back to the city delighted with the morning’s experience, and between two and three o’clock I left for Niagara Falls in a railway coach, where I arrived, as before observed, in the midst of a heavy thunder-storm.

For many weeks after Harrison’s victory on the Thames nothing of great importance occurred in that region. The most stirring event was an expedition under Captain Holmes, a gallant and greatly beloved young officer, sent out by Lieutenant Colonel Butler in February [1814.], where he was in temporary command at Detroit. It consisted of one hundred and sixty men, including artillerists, with two 6-pounders, and its object was the capture of Port {original text has "Fort".} Talbot, a British outpost a hundred miles down Lake Erie from Detroit. Difficulties caused Holmes to change his destination, and he proceeded to attack another outpost at Delaware, on the River Thames. In that movement, too, he was foiled by the watchfulness and strategy of the foe, who lured him from his expected prey. Finally they came to blows toward the evening of the 3d of March [1814.], at a place called the Longwoods, in Canada, where they fought more than an hour, and then each gladly withdrew under cover of the night-shadows. In this affair the Americans lost seven men in killed and wounded, while the enemy’s loss, including the Indians, was much greater. 73 The expedition was fruitless of good to any body. 74

In former chapters we have a record of the capture of Fort St. Joseph and the post and island of Michillimackinack, or Mackinaw, by the British, immediately preceding (and partly inducing) the fall of Detroit in the summer of 1812. 75 The latter post, with all Michigan, as we have observed, 76 was recovered from the British in 1813. For the better security of these acquisitions against British and Indian incursions, General M‘Arthur, the commandant of the Eighth Military District, caused works to be erected at the foot of Lake Huron, or head of the Straits or River St. Clair. It was called Fort Gratiot, in honor of the engineer of that name who superintended its construction.

Holmes arrived at St. Mary’s on the 21st [July, 1814.]. John Johnson, a renegade magistrate from Michigan, and an Indian trader, who was the agent of the Northwest Company at that place, apprised of his approach, fled with a considerable amount of property, after setting on fire the company’s vessel above the Rapids. She was saved by the Americans, 77 but every thing valuable on shore that could not be carried away was destroyed. Holmes then returned to St. Joseph, when the whole expedition started for Mackinaw, where it arrived on the 26th [July.]. It was soon ascertained that the enemy there were very strong in position and numbers, and the propriety of an immediate attack was a question between Croghan and St. Chair. The post could not be carried by storm, nor could the guns of the vessels easily do much damage to the works, they were so elevated. It was finally decided that Croghan should land with his troops on the back or western part of the island, under cover of the guns of the ships, and attempt to attack the works in the rear. This was done at Dowsman’s farm on the 4th of August, without much molestation, but Croghan had not advanced far before he was confronted by the garrison under M‘Douall, who were strongly supported by Indians in the thick woods. M‘Douall poured a storm of shot and shell from a battery of guns upon the invaders, when the savages fell upon them. A sharp conflict ensued, carried on chiefly on the part of the enemy by the Indians under Thomas, a brave chief of the Fallsovine tribe, when Croghan was compelled to fall back and flee to the shipping, with the loss of the much-beloved Major Holmes, who was killed, and Captains Van Horn and Desha, and Lieutenant Jackson, who were severely wounded. He also lost twelve private soldiers killed, fifty-two wounded, and two missing. The loss of the enemy is unknown.

Very soon after this the squadron sailed for Detroit, with the exception of the Tigress, Captain Champlin, and Scorpion, Captain Turner, which were left to blockade the Nautawassaga, it being the only route by which provisions and other supplies might be sent to Mackinaw. They cruised about for some time, effectually cutting off supplies from Mackinaw, and threatening the garrison with starvation. Their useful career in that business was suddenly closed early in September, when they were both captured by a party of British and Indians, sent out in five boats (one mounting a long 6, and another a 3 pounder) from Mackinaw to raise the blockade, under the general command of Lieutenant Bulger, his second being Lieutenant Worseley. They fell first upon the Tigress, off St. Joseph’s, when her consort was understood to be fifteen miles away. She was at anchor near the shore. The attack was made at nine o’clock in the evening of the 3d of September. It was intensely dark, and they were within fifty yards of the Tigress when discovered. The assailants were warmly received, but in five minutes the vessel was boarded and carried by overwhelming numbers, her force being only thirty men, exclusive of officers, and that of the assailants about one hundred. "The defense of this vessel," said Bulger, in his report of the affair, "did credit to her officers, 78 who were all severely wounded." Her officers and crew were sent prisoners of war to Mackinaw the next morning. 79

M‘Arthur’s raid was one of the boldest operations of the war. For almost four weeks he had skurried hundreds of miles through the enemy’s country, spreading alarm every where, and keeping the militia from Drummond’s ranks; destroying property here and there that might be useful to the enemy, and then returning to the place of departure with the loss of only one life! 80 He was generous as well as bold; and he publicly acknowledged that much of his success was due "to the military talents, activity, and intelligence of Major Todd," his adjutant general, who yet [1867] lives in his native Kentucky, in the vigor of a green old age.

James Miller was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire, on the 25th of April, 1776, and was thirty-eight years of age at this time. He was educated for the bar, but in 1808 he entered the United States Army as major of the Fourth Regiment of Infantry. In 1810 he was made lieutenant colonel, and, as we have already observed in this work, performed gallant services under Harrison in the campaign that ended at the battle of Tippecanoe. In August, 1812, he was breveted as colonel for his distinguished services near Detroit, which we have already recorded [TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: – Chapter XIII. and Chapter XIV.]; and in May the following year he commenced an equally distinguished series of services on the Niagara frontier in the Sixth Regiment. In March, 1814, he was promoted to full colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment, and accompanied General Brown, in the brigade of General Ripley, in the invasion of Canada in July. He fought gallantly at the battles of Chippewa and Niagara Falls, and also at Fort Erie; and for his services in capturing the battery in Lundy’s Lane, and general good conduct on the Niagara frontier, he was breveted a brigadier general, and received from Congress a gold medal, with suitable emblems and devices, delineated in the engraving on the opposite page. General Miller resigned his commission in the army in 1819, when he was appointed governor of Arkansas Territory. He held that office until March, 1825, when he was appointed collector of the port of Salem, Massachusetts, which position he held twenty-four years, or until 1849, when he was prostrated by paralysis. He had a second stroke of paralysis on the morning of the 4th of July, 1851, and died on the 7th at the age of seventy-five years. He was then living at Temple, New Hampshire, where part of his family still reside.

The gold medal presented by Congress is the size delineated on the following page. On one side is a bust of General Miller, with his name and title, and the words "I’LL TRY." On the other, a battle scene on a slope and eminence as at Lundy’s Lane. Troops are seen advancing in the distance. Over the scene are the words "RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS, NOVEMBER 8, 1814." Below, the words "BATTLES OF CHIPPEWA, JULY 5, 1814; NIAGARA, JULY 25, 1814; ERIE, SEPTEMBER 17, 1814."

10 This picture of the tattered banner and its broken staff of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, as it appeared on the day after the battle of Niagara Falls, is from a drawing made then, belonging to the Rochester Light Guard, and hanging in their armory in the spring of 1852, when a careful copy was kindly sent to me by Mr. Jeremiah Watts, one of the members of the Guard. The flag was white silk, with a yellow fringe, and the words "THE TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT OF U. S. INFANTRY" were inscribed upon a blue ribbon, with gilt scrolls at each end.