The Battle of Lundy's Lane, also known as the Battle of Niagara or contemporarily as the Battle of Bridgewater, was fought on 25 July 1814, during the War of 1812, between an invading American army and a British and Canadian army near present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and one of the deadliest battles fought in Canada, with approximately 1,720 casualties including 258 killed.
The engagement was marked by intense musketry at close range and instances of friendly fire on both sides amidst the smoke and confusion, which caused several units to break entirely. The two armies fought each other to a stalemate; neither side held firm control of the field following the engagement. However, the casualties suffered by the Americans precipitated their withdrawal, and the British held the strategic initiative.
Background
On 3 July 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 defeated a British force commanded by Major General Phineas Riall at the Battle of Chippawa.
A few days after the battle, Brown outflanked the British defences along the Chippawa Creek and the British fell back to Fort George near the mouth of the Niagara on Lake Ontario. Brown lacked the necessary troops and heavy artillery to attack this position and a British naval squadron controlled the lake. Commodore Isaac Chauncey, commander of the American ships based at Sackett's Harbor, New York, was waiting for new frigates and armed brigs to be completed before he challenged the British squadron. The American squadron was further delayed in port when Chauncey fell ill. As a result, no reinforcements or heavy guns were sent to Brown, and the British were able to move several units across the lake from York to reinforce Fort George.
For most of July, Brown's army occupied Queenston, a few miles south of Fort George. In this forward position they were harassed by Canadian militia and First Nation warriors. On 24 July Brown fell back to Chippawa Creek, intending to secure his supplies before advancing west to Burlington. As soon as Brown retired, British light infantry and militia under Major General Riall advanced to Lundy's Lane 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the Chippawa to allow light troops to maintain contact with the American main force.
Battle
Preliminary movements
Early on 25 July, 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 from Fort Niagara (which the British had captured in December 1813) along the east side of the Niagara River, hoping this would force Brown to evacuate the west bank. Instead, Brown ordered an advance north, intending in turn to force the British to recall Tucker's column to protect Fort George. The Americans apparently did not know that the British held Lundy's Lane in strength.
As soon as Riall knew the Americans were advancing, he ordered his troops to fall back to Fort George and ordered another column under Colonel Hercules Scott to move from St. Davids to Queenston to cover his withdrawal, rather than advance to his support. 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, at about 6:00 pm.
Scott's attack
Lundy's Lane was a spur from the main Portage Road alongside the Niagara River. It ran along the summit of some rising ground (about 25 feet higher than the surrounding area) and therefore commanded good views of the area. The British artillery (two 24-pounder and two 6-pounder guns, one 5.5-inch howitzer and a Congreve rocket detachment) were massed in a cemetery at the highest point of the battlefield.
The American 1st Brigade of regulars under Winfield Scott, with Towson's artillery company, emerged in the late afternoon from a forest into an open field and was badly mauled by the British artillery. Scott sent the 25th U.S. Infantry, commanded by Major Thomas Jesup, to outflank the British left. The 25th found a disused track leading to a landing stage on the river and used it to pass round the British flank. They caught the British and Canadian units there (the light company of the 1st Battalion of the 8th (King's) Regiment and the Upper Canada Incorporated Militia Battalion) while they were redeploying and unaware of the American presence, and drove them back in confusion. The British and Canadians rallied, but had been driven off the Portage Road. Jesup sent Captain Ketchum's light infantry company to secure the junction of Lundy's Lane and the Portage Road. Ketchum's company captured large numbers of wounded and messengers, including Major General Riall, who had been wounded in one arm and was riding to the rear. Most of the prisoners escaped when Ketchum, having briefly rejoined Jesup, ran into an enemy unit while trying to return to the main body of the American army, although Riall and militia cavalry leader Captain William Hamilton Merritt remained prisoners.
Jesup's action and the steadiness of Scott's brigade persuaded Drummond to withdraw his centre to maintain alignment with his left flank, and also pull back the Glengarry Light Infantry, who had been harassing Scott's own left flank. The withdrawal of Drummond's center left the artillery exposed in front of the infantry.
Brown's attack
By nightfall, Scott's brigade had suffered heavy casualties. Brown had arrived late in the day with the American main body (the 2nd Brigade of regulars under Brigadier General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley and a brigade of volunteers from the militia under Brigadier General 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. Miller famously responded, "I'll try, Sir".
While the British were distracted by another attack by the 1st U.S. Infantry on their right, Miller's troops deployed within a few yards of the British artillery. They fired a volley of musketry that killed most of the gunners and followed up with a bayonet charge; this captured the guns and drove the British centre from the hill. The British infantry immediately behind the guns (the 2nd Battalion of the 89th Foot) tried to counter-attack, but were driven back by Miller and Ripley.
Meanwhile, the British column under Colonel Hercules Scott was arriving on the field, already tired from its unnecessary diversion via Queenston. Unaware of the changed situation, they blundered into Ripley's brigade and were also driven back in disorder, losing their own three 6-pounder guns. These were recovered by a charge by the light company of the 41st Foot, but were either abandoned again or remained in British hands but could not be brought into action as the drivers and gunners had been scattered.
Drummond's counter-attack
While the Americans tried to deploy their own artillery among the captured British guns, Drummond (who had been wounded in the neck) reorganized his troops and mounted a determined attempt to retake his own cannon. There was no subtlety; Drummond launched an attack in line, without attempting to use his many light infantry to harass or disorder the American line, or to locate any weak points in it. The Americans beat back the attack after a short-range musketry duel over the abandoned British guns, in which both sides suffered heavy casualties. The Glengarry Light Infantry, who had once again begun to harass the American left flank, were mistaken for Americans by other British units and forced to withdraw after suffering casualties from British fire.
Undeterred by his first failure, Drummond launched a second attack, using the same methods and formation as in the first. Although some American units wavered, they were rallied by Ripley and stood their ground. While the combat was taking place, Winfield Scott led his depleted brigade (which had been reorganized into a single ad hoc battalion under Major Henry Leavenworth) in an unauthorized attack against Drummond's centre. Scott's brigade was engaged both by the British and by units of Ripley's brigade, who were not aware of the identity of the troops at which they were shooting. Drummond's line was driven back but Scott's men broke in disorder and retreated, before rallying on the American left. Scott rode to join Jesup's regiment, still out on the right flank, but was severely wounded shortly afterwards.
Shortly before midnight, Drummond launched a third counter-attack, using every man he could find, although by this time the British line consisted of mixed-up detachments and companies, rather than organized regiments and battalions. The fighting over the artillery was closer than before, with bayonets being used at one point, but again the exhausted British fell back.
End of the battle
By midnight both sides were spent. On the American side only 700 men were still standing in the line. Winfield Scott and Jacob Brown were both severely wounded. Brown would soon recover but Scott's injury removed him from the campaign. With supplies and water short, Brown ordered a retreat. Porter and Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Hindman (Brown's artillery commander) protested but complied. Ripley apparently did not learn of Brown's order until he realised that Hindman's artillery had been withdrawn. Although urged by Porter to maintain his position, he also withdrew. The British still had 1,400 men on the field but they were in no condition to interfere with the American withdrawal. Drummond had ordered some units to hold the Portage Road and left some light infantry outposts near the Americans, but had withdrawn the remainder a short distance west along Lundy's Lane.
The American artillerymen had suffered severely during the fighting, and Hindman had difficulty finding sufficient draught horses to get all his guns away. One American 6-pounder gun had been lost earlier during the close-range fighting, when its drivers had been hit by musket fire and the horses drawing it had bolted into the British lines. Hindman also had to abandon a howitzer with a broken carriage. The Americans were able to drag away one captured 6-pounder gun that had earlier been pushed to the bottom of the high ground in the centre of the former British position. Hindman later found more horses and sent a team back to recover one of the prized British 24-pounder guns. The team was captured by British parties who were wandering around the battlefield.
Aftermath
In the early hours of the morning of 26 July, Brown ordered Ripley to recover the abandoned British guns the next day. Reinforcing his exhausted men with detachments that had been left at Chippawa, Ripley moved out at daybreak with 1,200 soldiers but found that Drummond had reoccupied the battlefield with 2,200 men. Ripley withdrew, unmolested.
The American army fell back to Fort Erie, first deliberately destroying the old British fortifications along Chippawa Creek and burning the bridges behind them. Because they were short of transport, they had to abandon or destroy much equipment and supplies to make room for the wounded on the available wagons. Drummond was later to claim that the Americans had retreated in disorder. After burying some of the British and Canadian dead on the battlefield and burning many American corpses in large funeral pyres, the British withdrew to Queenston until Drummond received reinforcements.
In respect to the effect of the battle on the War, the British won a strategic victory, as the Americans on the Niagara had suffered so many casualties that they were now badly outnumbered, and were forced to retire to Fort Erie. Richard V. Barbuto says, "On 26 July, Brown's plan to advance on Burlington Heights was irretrievably shattered... Drummond had secured the forts at the northern end of the Niagara, and he had blunted an American advance. Although there was still a lot of fight in both forces, the balance of combat power on the Niagara Peninsula had swung from the invaders to the defenders".