The Niagara Campaign of 1814: The Battle of Lundy's Lane “This, then, was no mere parade...no stage play for effect...it was a single and a sublime reality... IT WAS WAR”. U.S. Lieutenant David Douglass Further Reading Background to the Battle of Lundy's Lane The Americans at Lundy's Lane The British at Lundy's Lane Two Accounts From The Battle The Aftermath of Lundy's Lane Surgeon William Dunlop Tends to the Wounded William Dunlop Remembers a Tragic Scene Books Where Right and Glory Lead! The Battle of Lundy's Lane, 1814 Donald E Graves

The Battle of Lundy's Lane The only light amidst the darkness and smoke was provided by cannon fire and musket blasts. It was enough to give Miller’s men glimpses of the heaps of bodies accumulating on the hillside. Darkness surrounded the base of the hill so that British gunners did not see Miller’s men until they had emptied their muskets on them. After a fierce hand-to-hand struggle Miller drove the British from the hill. Brown’s entire army now fought furiously to hold on to the guns. Over the next two hours, both armies struggled for the guns on the high ground with what one American called “a desperation bordering on madness.” Despite a neck wound, Drummond stood up front and ordered his men to hold fast on the hillside. Everyone, including the British soldiers who had arrived from the European war, were shaken by the ferocity of the battle. In the series of British counter-attacks to retake the guns, the Americans were often less than twenty yards away. In some instances, the range was so close that the enemies touched bayonets before their muskets opened fire. Many soldiers would later remember how, at the height of the horror, their musket flashes lit up the blackened faces of their enemies causing their gritted teeth to resemble macabre grins. Both armies had trouble keeping order in their forces. The cannons had claimed many senior officers and others could not be rallied in the darkness. The British could not dislodge the Americans from the hill. After each unsuccessful attempt, with its deafening chorus of discharging musketry and cannon, an eerie calm descended as the British fell back to regroup. The only sounds breaking this silence were the moans of the wounded, and the roar of the falls on the river. Both had their effects on the men. After fighting fiercely for hours and with no water left on the battlefield, some men were half-crazed with thirst. With the parched and weary Americans losing men and ammunition at an alarming rate, an injured Jacob Brown was finally convinced that keeping the hill was an exercise in futility. The Americans withdrew slowly toward Chippawa hoping to recoup some of their energy for another assault in the morning. With the British back in possession of the hill, they dragged dozens of dead horses into a makeshift barricade bracing for a counter-attack that would never come. Both armies were so exhausted and dehydrated that even by morning neither side would have the energy to continue. All night, groans for water, or for a quick end to wounded men’s misery, carried over the battlefield. When morning broke, it revealed a scene of devastation amidst the usually tranquil fields and orchards. Each side counted over 800 killed, wounded and missing. Another sight struck the survivors; too tired to drag them along in their withdrawal, the Americans had left behind all but one of the guns over which so many men perished.