twenty-four pounders. On reaching a narrow strip of woods which intervened between the American and the British line, Captains Harris and Pentland, whose companies formed a part of the advance, and were first fired on, gallantly engaged the enemy. The latter now retreated for the purpose of drawing the American column to the post at Lundy's Lane. General Scott resolutely pressed forward, after dispatching Major Jones to the commander-in-chief with intelligence that he had come up with the enemy. He had no sooner cleared the wood, and formed in line on a plain finely adapted to military manoeuvres, than a tremendous cannonade commenced from the enemy's battery, situated on their right, which was returned by Captain Towson, whose artillery was posted opposite, and on the left of the American line, but without being able to bring his pieces to bear on the eminence. The battle raged for an hour with great fury, and both officers and men were stricken down in large numbers.

The situation of Scott and his brigade was now becoming critical in the extreme. The British commander waited only for reinforcements to crush his brave opponent, and Scott was well aware that unless aid arrived soon, he must give up the contest. Both armies, as if by concert, ceased from the work of death, and for a time, no sound was heard amid the gathering darkness, on that blood-stained field, save the distant roar of the great cataract, mingled with the groans of the wounded and dying. It was nearly at the same time that the British and the Americans were

reinforced, and the battle was renewed. General Ripley, with Major Hindman's artillery, and General Porter's volunteers, on the one side, and General Drummond with fresh troops, on the other, eagerly entered upon the contest, each anxious to sustain the honor of his country's arms. General Ripley, ascertaining the impossibility of doing any thing effective while the enemy's artillery occupied its commanding position, saw at once that they must be driven from it, or defeat must ensue. Turning to the brave Colonel Miller, he asked, "Can you storm that battery?" It was a desperate undertak ing, but the gallant soldier, who knew the men under his command, and what they were capable of doing, answered, in words ever to be remembered, “I WILL TRY, SIR." And steadily, unfalteringly, with nerves strung to the fearful task, our countrymen advanced to the assault. Discharge after discharge of the blazing artillery, lightened up the darkness, and made sad inroads upon the noble twenty-first regiment; but, "close up, steady, men!" was the intrepid Miller's command, and onward they continued their march, until they reached the height, and swept the enemy from their very guns.

Meanwhile, Major Jessup, who, at the beginning of the action, had been detached against the British left, succeeded in turning the enemy's flank. Seizing the opportunity in the darkness, he threw his regiment in 1814. the rear of the British reserve, and surprising one detachment after another, made so many prisoners, of both officers and men, as in fact, to im

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pede his progress. General Riall was among the prisoners. Feeling his way through the darkness, to the place where the hottest fire was kept up on the brigade to which he belonged, Jessup, about the time that Miller carried the enemy's cannon, drew up his regiment behind a fence, on one side of the Queenstown road, in the rear of a party of British infantry. So destructive was Jessup's fire, that the enemy broke and fled instantly, and, as General Brown said, in his official report, the Major "showed himself again to his own army in a blaze of fire, which defeated or destroyed a very superior force of the enemy."

The height on which the artillery was placed, was now the point where the battle raged, and on the possession of which victory depended. General Drummond, not more astounded than chagrined at the loss of his cannon, determined to recover the height at any cost; while the Americans, with unflinching energy, resolved to keep that which they had so gallantly secured. Silently did they await, in the deep darkness, the approach of the enemy, reserving their fire till it could tell with deadly effect. The British marched up the ascent at a brisk step, until within twenty paces of the summit of the height, when they poured in a rapid fire, and prepared to rush forward with the bayonet. The American line, being directed by the fire of the enemy, returned it with terrible effect, which threw them into momentary confusion; but being rallied, they returned furiously to the attack. A most tremendous conflict ensued; which, for twenty

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minutes, continued with violence indescribable. The British line was at last compelled to yield, and to retire down the hill. Yet the American commander knew that the battle was not over. Transporting the wounded to the rear General Ripley immediately restored his line to order. General Scott's shattered brigade having been consolidated into one battalion, had, during this period, been held in reserve behind the second brigade, under Colonel Leavenworth. It was now ordered to move to Lundy's Lane, and to form with its right towards the Niagara road, and its left in the rear of the ar tillery.

After the lapse of half an hour, Drummond was heard again advancing to the assault with renovated vigor. The direction at first given by Ripley was again observed. The fire of the Americans was terrible; and the artillery of Major Hindman was served with the greatest skill and coolness, and with most fatal result to the enemy. After the first discharge, the British general threw himself with his entire weight upon the centre of the American line. He was firmly received by the gallant twenty-first regiment; a few platoons only faltering, which were soon restored by General Ripley. Finding that no impression could be made, the whole British line again recoiled, and fell back to the bottom of the hill.

During this second attempt, two gal lant charges were led by Scott in person, the first upon the enemy's left, and the second on his right flank, with his consolidated battalion; but having to

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oppose double lines of infantry, his attempts, which would have been decisive had they proved successful, were unavailing. Although he had most fortunately escaped unhurt thus far, subsequently, in passing to the right, he received two severe wounds: regardless of himself, however, he did not quit the field, until he had directed Colonel Leavenworth to unite his battalion with the twenty-fifth regiment, under the command of the brave Jessup. Once again, an hour later, the British general mounted that fatal eminence. Our countrymen, worn down with fatigue, and almost fainting with thirst, nerved themselves a third time, to repel the enemy. This last was more terribly contested than the preceding attempts. The British reached the top of the hill, and the struggle was carried on at the point of the bayonet. Friend and foe were intermingled, and for a short time, the issue of the fight was uncertain; but the Americans, with desperate valor, repulsed their furious assailants, and the whole British line broke and fled. No exertions of their officers could restrain them, or bring them back again to the assault.

This famous battle (known as the battle of Niagara, or of Bridgewater, or of Lundy's Lane) was the most severely contested, and, in proportion to the numbers engaged, the most destructive to human life, of any that has ever been fought in America. The British force numbered something short of five thousand, including militia and Indians. The American army was, in number, less than three thousand ;* yet on each side nearly nine hundred men were killed, wounded, and missing. The proportion of officers killed and wounded, was unusually large, and showed clearly that, so far as the American army was concerned, our countrymen were as able as they were willing, to meet even the veteran troops which had gained laurels on the battle fields of the old world.

General Brown, vexed that the cannon had been left behind, ordered Ripley to proceed at sunrise, to the heights of Lundy's Lane, and, after burying the dead, to bring away the trophies of victory; but the enemy had taken possession of the eminence, and Ripley, with not more than sixteen hundred men, and these much worn down by fatigue, found it impos sible to execute General Brown's order. He therefore retreated to Fort Erie;

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*It is but proper to advise the reader, that the British accounts state, in respect to the numbers engaged, that the American force was much larger than that of

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and as additional precautions against the enemy, destroyed the bridge over the Chippewa, and threw part of his baggage and stores into the rapids of the Niagara. Both sides claimed the victory; the Americans, because they captured the British guns, and drove the enemy from his position; the British, because they recovered the guns which Ripley had omitted bringing away, and, as Ingersoll says, found a cannon accidentally left by the Americans in their retreat; and also because the American force the next morning, did not attack them, but retired rather rapidly from the field. "Had General Drummond," says Ingersoll, "availed himself of this hasty and ill-judged retreat" on the part of Ripley, who does not seem to have entered heartily into Brown's views and plans,-"not a man of our army could have escaped. Whether it was the purpose of General Ripley to defend Fort Erie, or to cross the Niagara, he should have held the Chippewa, which was a strong fortress in itself. By leaving the Chippewa, he put the army, its artillery, all its supplies, and the whole Niagara frontier, into the power of the enemy. Fortunately for his reputation, and that of the country, Drummond failed to avail himself of any of the advantages thus offered to him."*

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The

and take command of the army. British, reinforced by General De Watteville, with a thousand men, followed the Americans and laid siege to 1814. Fort Erie, on the 3d of August. The same day a detachment, under Colonel Tucker, crossed the Niagara, for the purpose of attacking Buffalo and recapturing General Riall. This party, although subsequently increased by reinforcements to twelve hundred men, was repulsed by Major Morgan with a rifle corps of two hundred and forty men.

General Gaines arrived at the fort on the 4th of August, and entered zealously upon his important duties. The defences were in rapid progress, and the enemy were quite as active in preparing to attack the Americans. For a week or more, an incessant cannonade was kept up by the batteries of both besiegers and besieged; and frequent skirmishes took place, in one of which, on the 11th, Major Morgan lost his life. On the 14th, from various indications, it was evident that the enemy were intending to try the fortune of an assault. General Drummond had made his ar rangements to assail the works at Fort Erie on the right, centre and left at the same moment; and General Gaines prepared to meet him at all points. Late in the afternoon, one of the enemy's shells lodged in a small magazine, and blew it up with a tremendous noise, which caused a loud shout on the part of the British troops, although the Americans suffered no loss of men by the explosion.

The British commander, hoping to profit by the injury which he supposed

the Americans to have received, determined to assault the fort that night, under cover of the rain and deep darkness which envelopped all surrounding objects. Accordingly, at half past two, in the morning of the 15th of August, he sent forward his right column, thirteen hundred strong, under command of Colonel Fischer. Advancing quickly and steadily, the British assailed Towson's battery with scaling ladders, and the line towards the lake with the bayonet. A tremendous fire from the battery threw them into confusion, but, urged on by Colonel Fischer, they again advanced, and again were compelled to retire. Fischer next endeavored to pass round the abattis, by wading breast deep in the lake; but this attempt also failed, and nearly two hundred of his men were killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, the left and central columns, under Colonels Scott and Drummond, advanced to the assault 1814. of the fort. The attack was furiously made, and though gallantly resisted, was partially successful. Drummond and his corps mounted the scaling ladders, gained the parapet, and with the savage cry, "give the Yankees no quarter!" fell upon the brave men there. The bastion was lost; Captain Williams was mortally wounded; Lieutenants Watmough and M'Donough, severely. The latter, no longer able to fight, called for quarter. This was refused by Colonel Drummond, who repeated his instructions to his troops to deny it in every instance. The almost exhausted strength and spirits of M'Donough were roused by the barbarity of this order, and seizing a handspike, vth

the desperation of madness, he defended himself against the assailants, until he was shot by the infuriate Drummond himself. The latter survived this act only a few minutes; he received a ball in his breast, which terminated his ca

reer.

The enemy held what they had gainea until daylight, although they suffered severely. The left column had already been repulsed with great loss. General Gaines ordered up reinforcements, and vigorous efforts were made to drive out the invaders, which were beginning to be successful, when a terrible explosion took place under the platform of the bastion, and carried it away and all who were on it. The contest was now brought to a speedy close, and the enemy, repulsed at all points, retreated to their encampment.

According to the British accounts, their loss was, in killed, wounded, and missing, six hundred and fifty; the American accounts estimate the British loss at about nine hundred men, while their own was only eighty-four.

The next day, General Drummond was reinforced by two regiments; but he did not deem it advisable to renew the assault. The siege, however, was continued, and some apprehensions began to be felt as to its result. General Izard, at Plattsburg, was ordered, on the 12th of August, by the secretary of war, to proceed to the relief of the besieged army, and he accordingly set out, at the close of the month, with five thousand men, for that purpose.

* Armstrong (vol. ii., pp. 100-108) is particularly caustic in his review of the course pursued by Izard.