BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE—PRELIMINARIES.
"The British army, at the time General Brown commenced his retreat from Fort George and Queenston to Chippewa, was scattered in small cantonments over twenty or thirty miles of country; but like a well-ordered and systematic machine, every part was in a moment simultaneously in motion, to concentrate their united strength at a point where they would be likely to intercept the enemy.
"Detachments of the Royal Scots and 41st Regiments, and a small body of Indians, amounting in all to about 500 men, under the command of Colonel Tucker (supported on the river by a party of seamen and marines under the direction of Captain Dobbs, of the Royal Navy), passed over to the American side of the River Niagara, with a view to disperse or capture a body of the enemy stationed at Lewiston. The object of this movement being accomplished, the troops were again withdrawn at Queenston. The 41st and 100th Regiments, under Colonel Tucker, were sent back to garrison Fort George, Mississagua, and Niagara; General Drummond moving on towards the falls, with a force of about 800 strong, consisting of detachments of the Royal Scots, 89th, and King's, with the light company of the 41st Regiment, to join General Riall's division of the army as soon as it could arrive from the several bivouacs at which it had been stationed.
"As soon as the column of the British army under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison had arrived at the rising ground near the end of Lundy's Lane, on the main road leading from Queenston to Chippewa, the enemy was just taking possession of that position. Without a moment's delay, the troops which had arrived on the ground were formed in line on the north-east side of the height, their left resting on the Queenston road.
"The troops from the Twelve and Twenty Mile Creeks, together with a detachment of the King's Regiment, as they arrived, were formed on each side of Lundy's Lane. This line was supported in front by two twenty-four-pounders [field-guns], which were covered by a small squadron of the 19th Light Dragoons and a detachment of the infantry.
"The battle itself.—The troops of the line being thus disposed, notwithstanding the superior strength of the enemy, in about ten minutes dislodged him from the position he had first taken, at the point of the bayonet.
"The sun was now fast descending towards the western horizon; and detachments of the 1st and 2nd Lincoln Militia continued to arrive from the different outposts they had been occupying, who joined in maintaining the summit of the hill until the whole of General Riall's division should come up.
"General Drummond, after dislodging the enemy from the partial possession he had gained on the hill, again formed his line with as much despatch as existing circumstances would admit, placing his artillery, which consisted of two twenty-pounders, two six-pounders [brass field-pieces], and a rocket party, in front of the centre of his position, near the right side of Lundy's Lane, leading down the hill to the Queenston road, supported by the 2nd battalion of the 89th Regiment, under Colonel Morrison. Scarcely had this arrangement been completed before the position was furiously assailed by General Winfield Scott's brigade at the point of the bayonet; but the enemy was repulsed with great slaughter. A tremendous fire was then commenced on the crest of the British position, by the first brigade of the enemy, stationed near the copse between Lundy's Lane and the Falls of Niagara, and the 9th and 22nd Regiments and Captain Lawson's brigade of artillery, stationed on the Queenston road.
"During this stage of the engagement, the Light Company of Royal Scots arrived on the ground from the Twenty Mile Creek; and a courier was despatched to countermand the route of the 103rd Regiment, and the detachment of the King's and 104th Regiments, who had, in a mistake, taken the road to Queenston from the Beach Woods, and to hasten their movement to the field of action.
"On the brow of the hill, at the east end of Lundy's Lane, for the possession of which the armies hitherto had principally contended, General Drummond had now planted his artillery, as it appeared to form the key to the position. On this quarter, therefore, the enemy for a length of time directed his whole efforts; and notwithstanding the carnage was truly appalling, no visible impression had yet been made. Still on this part of the field did the whirlwind of the conflict rage with awful and destructive fury; columns of the enemy, not unlike the undulating surge of the adjacent cataract, rushed to the charge in close and impetuous succession.