Niagara Front of the 1812 War: June 18, 1812: The US declares war on Britain. Major-General Isaac Brock, President Administering the Province of Upper Canada, and general officer commanding, knew the military weakness of the Province. His defensive strategy included two significant features: first, he anticipated a two-pronged American attack on Upper Canada across the Detroit and Niagara Rivers; next, to make up for his manpower deficiencies, he looked to an initial British victory to persuade the Western Indians to come "on side". This victory came with the early surrender of the American post at Michilimackinac. The American army in the US northwest, now denied Indian support, withdrew to Fort Detroit. Meanwhile, embarking at Long Point, Brock headed a force of regulars and Canadian militia towards Detroit. Arriving at Amherstburg (Forg Malden), Brock added the garrison to his command. August 15, 1812, sunset: Brock opens up on Fort Detroit with a cannonade, and follows this with a formal demand that the Americans surrender. August 16, 1812, daybreak: Brock crosses the Detroit River with 300 regulars, 400 militia and 600 Indians, less than half the strength of the American forces in a defensive position. Brock, deceiving the enemy into believing he has many more times the number of regulars and Indians, boldly advances on the Fort. The Americans suddenly, and surprisingly, surrender. Some 35 cannons, 2,500 muskets, 500 rifles and ammunition fall into British hands. When Brock returned to the Niagara Peninsula, bringing the spoils of war with him, he found an armistice in place. September 8, 1812: The armistice in the Niagara region ends. The reinforced Americans now faced a stronger British line. A militia armed with American muskets faced east across the Niagara River, supported by the captured cannon. Sabre rattling occurred up and down the Niagara Frontier, and Brock predicted some decided action within two weeks. October 13, 1812: "The Battle of Queenston Heights" The main action comes at Queenston. Following that battle, there were two minor engagements along the border. November 21, 1812: A heavy artillery exchange takes place across the river between Fort Niagara and Fort George. November 28[?], 1812: At Frenchman's Creek below Fort Erie, a mixed force of British regulars and the Canadian militia repell an American river-borne assault. Then both sides went into winter quarters. AAs the spring of 1813 passed into early summer, the British were aware that the Americans apparently had designs on Fort George. Across the Niagara River, the Americans began to play a war of nerves; their carpenters started to build landing barges in sight of Fort George, and American troops deployed up and down purposefully in feints before the British and Canadians, and they made overt preparations for an invasion. May 25, 1813: American guns at the mouth of the Niagara River open fire on the west bank. Hot shot fires the wooden buildings in Fort George. This cannonade begins the expected invasion. May 26, 1813, late in the day: Out of sight, American troops embark on ships towing assault craft. May 27, 1813: "The Battle of Fort George". Fort George falls to the Americans. Early in the morning, the American ships set out. Propelled by sweeps (oars), the hide in the darkness and dense fog of a windless night. As dawn breaks, the batteries of Fort Niagara open up on Fort George again, leading the British army commander to pull his guards and patrols back from the lake shore to counter a possible invasion along the river bank. After half an hour, the bombardment ceases, leaving an eerie quietness. With the sun climbing in the sky, the fog banks roll away, and the British see the American fleet arrayed before them. Assault craft move in over the glassy surface of the lake, covered by a murderous fire directed at British defences from Fort George to Mississauge Point and beyond. The 24-pound garrison gun in the Mississauge Point battery gets off a single shot before it breaks down. Caught off guard, the British army commander directs his infantry units to the lake shore between Mississauge Point and Two Mile Creek to the west. The Americans hit the beach under the protection of a high bank. Grouping, they climb the bank and advance on the hastily drawn up British units and the Canadian militia. Of the latter, Captain William Hamilton Merritt, said, "We were all placed in too awkward a position to deliberate much, as the fort [Niagara] and shipping kept up a most galling cross-fire on us the whole morning.". The British and Canadians retreat from Mississauge Point and evacuate Fort George. The American army follows, marching behind a fife and drum band playing "Yankee Doodle". The British retreated down the Niagara River to Queenston, then turned inland to St. Davids before climbing the Niagara Escarpment to Beaver Dams and the De Cew supply depot nearby. The British commander called his troops in from Fort Erie and Chippawa, and the retreat continued westwards to The Forty (Grimsby), thence to the fortified position at Burlington Heights to regroup. The Americans followed below the Escarpment. June 5, 1813: The Americans camp at Stoney Creek. That night, the British fall upon the sleeping Americans, and send their forces reeling. The Americans retreated to Fort George, with British regulars, militia and Indians snapping at their heels. In retreat, the American commander now pulled his troops in from Fort Erie and Chippawa to Fort George. He knew that a short distance west, above "the Mountain", and well situated to provision the British troops advancing eastwards across the plain below, the British still held the small De Cew supply depot. A detachment of regulars under Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon guarded it. The De Cew depot also acted as a base for Fitzgibbon's patrols, and it provisioned the British Indian Department's Iroquois raiding parties. These troublesome patrols and raiding parties provoked the Americans into sending a force of over 500 men from Fort George (with two field guns) to destroy Fitzgibbon's outpost. June 24, 1813: "The Battle of Beaver Dams". The American force leaves Fort George for Queenston and St. Davids. Seen by British Indian scouts, it climbs "the Mountain" and approaches Beaver Dams. Here, the rode becomes a muddy cart track "intersected in many places by deep gullies and closely bounded on either side by an almost continuous wall of trees and underbrush". In the underbrush, the British Indians lay in ambush. The American column marches into the trap, and the Indians fire upon them, killing 20 men. In the confusion, some Indians steal behind the American column to surround it. The exposed Americans on the road suffer heavy casualties. With their field guns virtuall useless firing into the dense brush, the Americans retreat into an open hollow, contained by a swamp on one side, and the Iroquois on the other. Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, forewared by Laura Secord and hearing the firing, comes up. With Indian approval, he goes forward to demand the American surrender. Under a flag of truce, Fitzgibbon approaches the besieged Americans, and like Major-General Isaac Brock at Detroit, plays upon their deep-seated fear of the Indians. After Fitzgibbon's assurance of their protection, the Ammericans surrender. It is, however, a total British Indian victory. After the Battle of Beaver Dams, the British twice crossed the Niagara River to the American side. July 5, 1813: The British successfully raid Fort Schlosser above the Falls. July 12[?], 1813: The British raid Black Rock above Grand Island. Below the Escarpment, the British laid siege to Fort George. Skirmishing continued throughout July and August. In October, intent on attacking Kingston from Sackets Harbor, and advancing on Quebec to isolate Upper Canada, the Americans shipped their regulars out of Fort George, replacing them with their militia. Disaster, however, struck the British. September 18, 1813: The Americans gain naval control over Lake Erie with their victory at Put-in-Bay. Then the British general officer commanding decided to abandon the western territory. He left Fort Malden for Burlington Heights. The Americans followed in hot pursuit. They caught the British and their western Indian allies near Moraviantown, and trounced them. Only a small, weak and spent line of British regulars straggled on to Burlington Heights. Outside Niagara, the British felt their rear threatened, and fell back to Burlington Heights. The Americans, however, returned to the south- west without pressing their advantage. Once back, the American general officer commanding sped his regular troops up Lake Erie to Fort George to reinforce the American militia there. The attempt to isolate Upper Canada proved unsuccessful, and the Americans now feared a British attack on Sackets Harbor before winter set in. The regulars at Fort George reinforced Sackets Harbor, leaving the militia, now with less than three weeks before discharge, to garrison the Fort. December 10, 1813: The American officer commanding, with inadequate forces to defend Fort George, evacuates it, but not before burning Newark (today's Niagara-on-the-Lake). The British came up from Burlington Heights and re-occupied Fort George. December 18-19, 1813: Swift retribution for the burning of Newark follows. Fort Niagara fell on this night, and other British reinforcements take and burn Lewiston, Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Buffalo on the American side. The border remained relatively quiet in early 1814. July 3, 1814: A strong American force crosses the Niagara River from Buffalo and takes Fort Erie. The Americans pressed northwards along the river road and crossed Black Creek. Alerted to the advance, the main British force on the Peninsula marched south to meet the Americans. July 5, 1814: "The Battle of Chippawa". In the morning, the American army commander had his troops behind Street's Creek. The smaller British force, he knew, camped in a defensive position beyond the Chippawa River (today's Welland River), and he did not expect it to attack. In fact, he anticipated the British waiting until he attacked them. So he ordered a belated July 4 Dinner served to his troops on July 5; he scheduled a dress parade to follow. In mid-afternoon, much to the American army commander's surprise, the weaker British force crossed the King's Bridge at Chippawa, and marched south towards Street's Creek. Two phases marked the battle. In the first, the British Iroquois allies advance through the woods to attack the American left flank. They met American Iroquois. For the first time, Iroquois from both sides of the border fought each other in the War of 1812. The result was inconclusive. Then British light companies and Canadians of the 2nd Regiment of Lincoln Militia repulsed an American militia advance through the woods towards Chippawa. The second phase opened with the American commander ordering his regular troops assembled for the dress parade to march over the bridge at Street's Creek. Once across the creek, the troops deplyed in extended line according to traditional European tactics of the day. The artillery went over, also, and sited their guns on the right flank north of the creek (close to the present-day cairn). The Americans waited. The British Commander first thought the grey-uniformed Americans were poorly trained militia. Realizing his error, he is said to have exclaimed, "Those are regulars, by God!". The grey uniforms worn by US officer cadets at West Point stem from this incident. Today, there are differences of opinion on what happened in the final moments of the battle. Extracts from the reports of the respective army commanders appear below. From the report of the American army commander: "Major Jessup, commanding the left flank battalion, finding himself pressed in front and in flank and his men fallling fast around him, ordered his battalion to "support arms and advance". This order was promptly obeyed amidst the most deadly and destructive fire; he gained a more secure position and returned upon the enemy so galling a discharge as caused them to retire. By this time their whole line was falling back and our gallant soldiers pressing upon them as fast as possible. As soon as the enemy had gained the sloping ground descending towards Chippawa, he broke and ran to gain his works..." From the report of the British army commander: "I placed two light 24 pounders and 5' inch howitzer against the right of the enemy's position, and formed the Royal Scots and 100th Regiment with the intention of making a movement on his left, which deployed with the greatest regularity and opened a heavy fire. I immediately moved up the King's Regiment to the right while the 100th and Royal Scots were directed to charge the enemy in front, for which they advanced with the greatest gallantry under a most destructive fire. I am sorry to say, however, that in this attempt they suffered so severely that I was obliged to withdraw them, finding their further efforts against the superior numbers of the enemy would be unavailing." After the Battle of Chippawa, the British retreated to Fort George. The Americans followed them, making for St. Davids and Queenston. The American army commander appealed to his naval counterpart to provide support in a joint attack on Fort George. Anticipating the results of being bottled up under heavy fire, the British commander left a small garrison at the Fort, and moved the bulk of his troops out. He occupied a position well behind the frontier at Twenty Mile Creek. The American troops came tantalizing close to Fort George. They failed to draw the garrison out, and waited in vain for their navy to support them. Burning St. Davids and marauding the neighbouring countryside, they began to fall back on Chippawa. The senior British general in Upper Canada, Lieutenant-General Gordon Drummond, seizing the moment, landed at Fort George. Pulling the garrisons out of Fort George and Fort Niagara, he marched towards the Falls of Niagara to join the British army from Twenty Mile Creek at "the summit of the hill at Lundy's Lane". July 25, 1814: "The Battle of Lundy's Lane". Drummond also caught up with the Americans who turned to fight. The British centre held the high ground, the Royal Artillery turning back repeated American charges early in the evening. Later, an American right flanking movement, thrusting across Lundy's Lane below the Portage Road, came across the British left flank and captured the general officer commanding the sector. The British regulars and the Canadian militia reformed to stop the Americans getting behind the ridge and their centre. Wave after wave of American infantry assaulted the hill until one fanally succeeded in taking the ridge and the British artillery. The fighting there, savage, close-range and hand-to-hand, lasted for some time, and all in darkness. Finally, with both sides exhausted, one gave way. The Americans withdrew, leaving the British and Canadians in possessions of the ground. Casualties made Lundy's Land the bloodies battle of the War. The Americans lost over 700 men, killed or wounded, and the British over 600 men similarly. Burning the Bridgewater Mills above the Falls, and destroying the bridge at Chippawa, the American forces fell back on to the now well fortified Fort Erie. After the July 3 capture of the Fort, American engineers excavated a dry ditch and built earthworks behind it, anchoring them in the south on the Snake Hill Battery. By early August, the Americans had over 2,000 troops behind these fortifications. Drummond, meanwhile, rested his troops and waited for reinforcements. In early Auguest, he advanced southwards. "The Siege of Fort Erie" Drummond brought up the "big guns" from Fort George, and he bombarded Fort Erie on August 13. On August 15, he assaulted the Fort at night. In his frontal attack, the Americans turned him back; mercenaries in his front lines panicked and fled backwards, throwing the rear lines into confusion. He suffered a further setback when powder under a bastion blew up smashing his men gaining on the Fort. An assault to the south failed also, and he retired. Drummond invested the Fort, but could not take it. The Americans held, but could not get out. The American Navy controlled Lake Erie and supplied to Fort, and sailed out on Lake Ontario to blockade Fort George and cut off Drummond's supplies. The British bombardment of the Fort caused heavy American casualties, aggravated by sickness and fatigue. Then, an American foray reduced two of the three new British siege batteries. On September 21, a dispirited Drummond withdrew his tired and rain-soaked men back to a line behind Lyons Creek and the Wellend River. By mid-October, both sides desperately needed supplies. Drummond's main body of troops waited for them at Chippawa; the American commander sent out for them at Cooks Mills. Drummond ordered a counter-attack, fearing that the strong American force threatened his rear. He engaged the Americans near the mill several miles inland from Chippawa on Lyons Creek. Drummond blunted the probe, and both sides retired, the Americans failing to bring down the flour. In late autumn, the American Navy lifted its blockade of Fort George, and retired to winter quarters at Sackets Harbor. Control of Lake Ontario fell to the British. Fearing a re-enforced Drummond, the American commander blew up Fort Erie on November 5, 1814, and left for the United States. Warfare ended on the Niagara Peninsula. !http://badger.ac.brocku.ca/~bk95af/trivia.html http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/RefBibs/war1812/northern.htm http://chardonnay.niagara.com/~merrwill/herwomen.html !http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/parks/alpha2e.htm !http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/parks/alphae.htm http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/parks/ontario/queenston_heights/queenston_heightse.htm http://www.brocku.ca/epi/3v23page/paradise.htm http://www.brocku.ca/residence/residence/queenston/secord.html http://www.brocku.ca/residence/residence/village/dittrick.html http://www.brocku.ca/residence/residence/village/lampman.html !http://www.brocku.ca/residence/residence/village/theal.html !http://www.callwelland.com/conn9.html http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/1163/ing_misc.htm -http://www.hhpl.on.ca/sigs/ehs/articles/kennedy.htm http://www.iaw.on.ca/~awoolley/lwhist.html http://www.iaw.on.ca/~awoolley/lwcolour.html http://www.iti.mu-luebeck.de/GI/FT-News/srds96_program.html !http://www.inforamp.net/~ihooker/qyrhist.htm !http://www.newcastle.research.ec.org/cabernet/events/cur-date/msg00005.html -http://www.regional.niagara.on.ca/niagara/thor.html http://www.sentex.net/~cdoatman/8.html * One of the fiercest battles of the War of 1812 took place at Queenston Heights Park. A monument is built in memory of Major General Sir Isaac Brock, Lieutenant Govenor of Upper Canada, who died in action defending his country on October 13th, 1812. Nearby, the imposing Brock's Monument is a stone memorial of Laura Secord, who by her bravery saved the Battle of Beaver Dam in 1813. LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD ( 1775 - 1868) During the War of 1812 - 1814 the village of Queenston was captured by the Americans. Laura overheard the enemy officers billeted in her house planning a surprise attack on the Canadian forces at Beaver Dams. The next day she set off at 4:00 am to warn the Canadian forces of the upcoming attack. She made the 20 mile journey across swamps, rain-swollen creeks and up the Niagara Escarpment to find the Canadian forces. The Canadians and their Six Nation allies brilliantly defeated the larger American forces at the Battle of Beaver Dams. Laura's Queenston home is now a museum. Other possible sources: * Bassett, John and A. Roy Petrie, Laura Secord. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1974 * Robinson, Helen Caistor. Laura. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1981