The 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 arrives with the outcome of the indecisive war still in some dispute among certain history buffs.
After 200 years, it may seem a little easier for patriotic Americans to admit the United States lost that war than it is to admit today that the country lost the Vietnam War. But, as in any dispute, there are always two sides.
Probably the most important battle of the whole War of 1812 was the vicious and gory Battle of Lundy's Lane just across the river. Today Lundy's Lane is a sparkling commercial district. Back then it was figuratively a river of blood.
Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown, head of the U.S. Left Division, invaded Canada on July 3, 1814, from Buffalo. They marched quickly to the Chippewa River, where the British were entrenched. After some heavy fighting, including thick forest warfare involving Iroquois Indians on both sides, Brown's division was victorious. They crossed the river and pushed British Gen. Phineas Riall's troops northward toward Fort George.
Niagara's own Red Jacket was in the brigade of militiamen and Seneca Indians led by Brigadier Gen. Peter B. Porter. They were engaged in difficult forest warfare, a type of guerrilla warfare of those days. Porter's men fought valiantly, but finally broke before British regulars.
However, Gen. Brown called Porter a "gallant" warrior. This was discovered a few days after the fight, when scores of enemy bodies were removed from the forest.
This victory at Chippewa for the Americans set the stage for the upcoming Battle of Lundy's Lane. On the night of July 8, Gen. Riall's division marched to Fort George, while Brown's division was crossing the Chippewa. Brown had hoped that the U.S. naval commander of the Great Lakes, Admiral Isaac Chauncey, would sail to Fort George to cut off English supplies as Brown had requested. However, with no coordination between the services, Chauncey decided to stay at Sackets Harbor, where he was building larger ships.
Brigadier Gen. Winfield Scott, who would move on later to head the entire U.S. Army, also fought valiantly in the campaign.
Brown held his troops up at Queenston Heights, waiting for the naval arrival, which never happened. Chauncey fell ill, and there was no timetable when the U.S. fleet might sail, bringing heavy guns and supplies to Brown and cutting British supplies to Fort George. Brown decided to advance on Burlington.
Riall, meantime, decided to leave Fort George and engage the Americans. He had 800 regulars, 300 militia and some Indians from Grand River. Gen. Scott, without waiting for Brown, decided to send his brigade in an attack on the British holding a ridge at Lundy's Lane and Portage Road, but they were rebuffed.
Riall, fearing an advance of Brown's entire division, abandoned Lundy's Lane ridge and retreated toward Queenston. But Lt. Gen. Sir Gordon Drummond countermanded the withdrawal, realizing the British on top of Lundy's Lane Bridge with five cannon had a distinct advantage over advancing Americans.
The British were repulsed, and Gen. Riall was wounded. Then came the counterattacks with vicious hand-to-hand fighting. The British, remembering some of the cowardly actions of the American militia at the beginning of the war, were shocked at the competent fighting at Lundy's Lane. The British launched three counterattacks. Each was repulsed after tough battles.
Gen. Brown was wounded, as was Gen. Scott, and they were evacuated to a hospital at Williamsville. Brown ordered Gen. Eleazar Ripley to continue the fight, but Ripley decided to take the division back across the Chippewa River, leaving Lundy's Lane and the cannon to be recovered by the British without a fight.
Gen. Ripley continued the withdrawal back to Fort Erie. If the British had followed up, they might have driven the U.S. Army from Canada. As it was, Ripley wanted to retreat across the river to Buffalo, but Brown, from his hospital bed, ordered the Army to hold Fort Erie. Brown replaced Ripley and called in Gen. Edmund Gaines to take command.
The British decided to lay siege to Fort Erie, but the U.S. Army, under the capable leadership of Gaines, maintained control of Fort Erie and broke the siege. Inexplicably, the United States voluntarily left Fort Erie, even as peace talks were making some headway in Ghent, Belgium.
Who won the Battle of Lundy's Lane?
Gen. Brown's official report said, "They were met by us near the Falls of Niagara where a most severe conflict ensued; the enemy disputed the ground with resolution, yet were driven from every position they attempted to hold."
Gen. Drummond's British report said, "The enemy's efforts to carry the hill were continued until about midnight when he had suffered so severely from the superior steadiness and discipline of His Majesty's troops that he gave up the contest and retreated with great precipitation to his camp beyond the Chippewa."
Richard V. Barbuto, who holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Kansas and is a retired lieutenant colonel after 23 years in the Army, said, according to field statistics, both sides could claim victory.
The British had 84 killed, 559 wounded, 235 missing or taken prisoner, for a total 878 casualties. The American Army had 173 killed, 571 wounded, and 117 missing or taken prisoner, for 860 casualties.
The story, of course, would have had a decisive ending for the United States if Brown had gotten naval support, had not been wounded, and if Ripley had only occupied the high ridge and kept control of the cannon before the British could organize another counterattack.
As for the war as a whole, neither side gained any territory or fully accomplished their stated goals. The British did stop impressments, or boarding U.S. ships and taking sailors they claimed were British subjects and pressed into naval service, and the blockade was lifted. However, it can be argued that would have happened anyway with the end of the Britain-France war.
Gen. Andrew Jackson had a significant victory in New Orleans after the peace treaty had been agreed upon and the war was technically over.
Call it a draw, if you must, but I feel patriotic Americans can argue with some authority that the United States did not suffer its first losing war.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | February 9, 2010 |