Battle of Lundy's Lane
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| Battle of Lundy's Lane | |||||||
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| Part of War of 1812 | |||||||
| Image:Battle of Lundys Lane.jpg American Infantry attacks at Lundy's Lane | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Britain | United States | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Gordon Drummond Phineas Riall | Jacob Brown Winfield Scott | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| At start: 2,200, 5 guns Reinforcements: 1,800, 3 guns | At start: 2,000, 3 guns Reinforcements: 1,000, 6 guns | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 84 dead 559 wounded 193 missing 42 captured | 171 dead 572 wounded 110 missing 7 captured | ||||||
| Niagara campaigns |
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| Queenston Heights – Fort George – Stoney Creek – Beaver Dams – Fort Niagara – 1st Fort Erie – Chippawa – Lundy's Lane – Cook's Mills – 2nd Fort Erie |
The Battle of Lundy's Lane was a battle of the War of 1812 on July 25, 1814, fought in present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was the bloodiest battle ever fought in Canada.
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[edit] Background
On July 3, 1814, an American army under Major General Jacob Brown launched an attack across the Niagara River, near its source on Lake Erie. His force quickly captured the British position at Fort Erie and then advanced north. Two days later, one of his two brigades of regular U.S. Infantry under Brigadier General Winfield Scott won a decisive victory against an equal British force at the Battle of Chippawa, putting them to flight.
A few days after the battle, Brown outflanked the British defences along the Chippawa River and the British fell back to Fort George. Brown lacked the necessary numbers and heavy artillery to attack this position. At the time, a British naval squadron controlled Lake Ontario. The American flotilla under Commodore Isaac Chauncey was waiting for new ships to be completed before they could challenge the British squadron. As a result, no reinforcements or siege guns could be sent to Brown. Meanwhile, the British were able to move several units of reinforcements across the lake to Fort George.
For most of July, Brown's army occupied Queenston, a few miles south of Fort George. In this forward position, his supply line was harrassed by British light infantry and Canadian militia and Indians. On July 24, Brown fell back to the Chippawa River, intending to secure his supply lines before advancing west to Burlington. As soon as Brown retired, a British force under Major General Phineas Riall advanced to Lundy's Lane, four miles (6 km) north of the Chippawa.
[edit] Approach to Lundy's Lane
Early on July 25, the British Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond, arrived in Fort George to take personal command on the Niagara peninsula. He immediately ordered a force under Lieutenant Colonel John Tucker to advance south along the east side of the Niagara River, hoping to force Brown to evacuate the west bank. Instead, Brown ordered an advance north, intending to force Tucker's column to be recalled to protect Fort George. The Americans apparently did not know that the British held Lundy's Lane.
As soon as Riall knew the Americans were advancing, he ordered his troops to fall back to Fort George and ordered another column in the area under Colonel Hercules Scott to retreat to Burlington. These orders were countermanded by Drummond, who had force-marched a detachment of reinforcements to Lundy's Lane from Fort George. The British were still reoccupying their positions when the first American units came into view.
[edit] Battle
Lundy's Lane, a spur from the main portage road alongside the Niagara River, ran along the summit of some rising ground and therefore commanded good views of the area. The British artillery (two 24-pounder and two 6-pounder guns, one 5.5-inch howitzer) was massed in a cemetery at the highest point of the battlefield.
The American brigade of Winfield Scott, who had won the Battle of Chippawa, emerged in the late afternoon from a forest into an open field and were badly mauled by the British artillery. Scott sent the 25th U.S. Infantry to flank the British left. They caught the British and Canadian units there while they were redeploying and briefly drove them back in confusion, but the British rallied. General Riall was severely wounded and was captured by Ketchum's Company of the 25th United States Infantry while riding to the rear.
As night fell, Scott's brigade had suffered heavy casualties, but Brown arrived with the American main body (a brigade of regulars under Brigadier General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley and another of volunteers from the militia under Peter B. Porter). As Ripley and Porter relieved Scott's brigade, Brown ordered the 21st U.S. Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel James Miller to capture the British guns.
James Miller's response to Brown's order, "I'll try, Sir", is now the motto of the 21st U.S. Infantry. While the British were distracted with another attack on their right, Miller's troops deployed within a few yards of the British artillery. They fired a volley of musketry which killed most of the gunners and followed up with a bayonet charge which captured the guns and drove the British centre from the hill.
Meanwhile, the British column under Colonel Hercules Scott began arriving on the field, already tired from their futile march and countermarch. Unaware of the situation, they blundered into Ripley's brigade and were also driven back in disorder. (They briefly lost their own three guns, but these were quickly recovered.)
Although wounded, Drummond now reorganised his troops and mounted three determined attempts to retake his own cannon and capture the American guns which were being deployed on Lundy's Lane. All three attempts were beaten off, as was another American attack by Winfield Scott. In the smoke and confusion, both sides several times fired on their own troops as the battle revolved around the cemetery.
By midnight, both sides were exhausted. Each sides had lost about the same number of men—878 British and 860 American. On the American side, only 700 men were still standing. Winfield Scott and Jacob Brown were both severely wounded. With supplies and water short, Brown ordered a retreat. Ripley, Porter and Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Hindman (Brown's artillery commander) protested but complied. Although the British still had 1,400 men on the field, they were in no condition to interfere with the American withdrawal. The Americans could drag away only one of the captured British guns and had to abandon one of their own with a broken carriage.
There had been much fighting at close quarters. Veteran British soldiers, who had fought against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War, were horrified at the carnage they had witnessed at Lundy's Lane. Drummond reported, "Of so determined a Character were [the American] attacks directed against our guns that our Artillery Men were bayonetted by the enemy in the Act of loading, and the muzzles of the Enemy's Guns were advanced within a few Yards of ours".
[edit] Aftermath
In the early hours of the morning, Brown ordered Ripley to recover the abandoned British guns the next day. Ripley moved out with 1,200 exhausted soldiers but found that Drummond had reoccupied the battlefield with 2,200 men. Ripley withdrew, unmolested.
The American army now fell back to Fort Erie, first deliberately destroying Riall's old fortifications along the Chippawa River and burning the bridges behind them. Because they were short of draught animals, they had to abandon some equipment and supplies to make room for the wounded on the available wagons. Drummond was later to claim from this that the Americans had retreated in disorder. In fact, after burying some of the dead on the battlefield, the British had themselves retreated to Queenston, until Drummond received reinforcements.
[edit] Outcome
The battle confirmed that the American regular forces had evolved from a poorly-trained militia into a professional army. Scott is widely credited for this change, having modelled and trained his troops using French Revolutionary drills and exercises.
Like the overall war, there is some dispute about the actual outcome of the battle. Some historians say the Americans retreated, based upon General Drummond's report that the British held the field. Others state that the British retreated during the night but took the position back in the morning when the Americans retreated because of lack of supplies.
Evidence compiled by Donald E. Graves, a Canadian historian employed at the Directorate of History, Department of National Defence Canada, provides what is likely the most complete and unbiased interpretation of the battle to date. Graves argues that General Drummond failed to utilize skirmish pickets to protect his guns, which were consequently captured by the Americans. The American force therefore appears to have won a pyrrhic victory, having captured the British artillery and forcing the British to withdraw from the heights after failing to recapture their guns.
In respect to the actual war, the British may also claim a strategic victory since they had driven the American army away from Fort George and inflicted so many casualties that the Americans could no longer mount a major attack. However, Drummond subsequently suffered a heavy defeat at the Siege of Fort Erie, which again reversed the odds, and might have been disastrous for the British, if Jacob Brown had not been superseded in command by the more cautious Major General George Izard.
The battle may therefore be declared as a narrow American tactical victory and a questionable British strategic victory.
[edit] Orders of battle
| British order of battle | American order of battle |
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Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond
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Left Division (Major General Jacob Brown)
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[edit] References
- Graves, Donald E. "Where Right and Glory Lead! The Battle of Lundy's Lane 1814" Toronto: Robin Brass Studio Inc. 1997.
- Elting, John R. "Amateurs to Arms! A military history of the War of 1812", New York: Da Capo Press, 1995 ISBN 0-306-80653-3
