Tecumseh and Brock (21 page)

The roar of the American guns alerted the defenders at Queenston that an assault was underway. On duty for a fifth consecutive night, Lieutenant George Ridout, a Canadian officer in the 3rd York Militia, later wrote to his father that when he heard the gunfire, “I went down to our battery from whence the view was truly tremendous, the darkness of the night, interrupted by the flash of the guns and small-arms.” Ridout could see the Americans struggling against the swift current to make it to the Canadian shore. Three of the vessels were driven too far downstream and headed back to the point of embarkation. The other ten boats succeeded, however, in coming ashore upstream from Queenston, as intended.

The 49th Grenadiers and the Canadian militiamen opened fire on the Americans. Following a fierce engagement, the 160 soldiers in the 13th U.S. Infantry, led by Captain John E. Wool, drove off the defenders toward Queenston. Captain Wool and Colonel Van Rensselaer suffered severe wounds in the firefight, but the Americans were lodged on the Canadian side of the river. The wounded Van Rensselaer was ferried back to the American shore. Wool carried on, leading his men up the winding path to the summit of Queenston Heights, 106 metres above. There the Americans drove off the British gunners, who were directing the fire of their 18-pounder and mortar at the U.S. embarkation point.

The initial bellowing of the American cannon warned Brock at Fort George that the anticipated U.S. attack had commenced. He mounted his horse and rode approximately one kilometre to the scene of the attack. By the time Brock arrived, Captain Wool and his men had reached the summit. Downstream from Queenston at Hamilton's Point, where the whole invasion force was supposed to have landed, four American vessels came ashore. There the soldiers of the 49th's Light Company raked the U.S. force with a relentless series of volleys. The members of the 49th had been repositioned from the Heights as soon as the attack began, in order to meet the Americans at the riverbank. In this they were successful. Only one American vessel escaped. The rest of the U.S. soldiers in this second offensive attack were killed or captured.

Twenty-one-year-old Lieutenant John Beverley Robinson of the 3rd York Militia later described the American survivors from the botched landing: “The road was lined with miserable wretches suffering from wounds of all descriptions and crawling to our houses for protection and comfort.”
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Robinson, later knighted as Sir John Robinson, went on after the war to enjoy a distinguished career in Upper Canada.
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At the summit, where the small American force under Captain Wool was installed, two companies of Canadian militia commanded by Brock's aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel John Macdonell, counterattacked. The Canadians initially succeeded in forcing the Americans back. But U.S. reinforcements arrived from below, driving the militia back down the hill and in the process fatally wounding Macdonell.

Alarmed that the Americans were once more installed at the summit and regretting the earlier decision to move the Light Company from the Heights, Brock prepared a new attack. He assembled all the men he had available to him in the village. Riding on his horse, he led the men southward. Just before reaching the foot of the Heights, he shouted, “Take a breath, boys — you will need it in a few moments.” Dismounting from his horse, Brock led his men up the hill.
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Outfitted in his scarlet uniform with gold epaulettes and the ornamental scarf that had been Tecumseh's present to him after Detroit, the general led his horse by the bridle. He had taken only a few steps when a ricocheting bullet hit the wrist of his sword arm. It was a slight wound and did not deter Brock, who waved his sword and urged his men forward.

As Brock was leading the charge to battle, a scout from Ohio saw the tall general in his resplendent scarlet, took aim, and felled him with a shot that tore through his left breast.
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According to the account from George Jarvis, a fifteen-year-old gentleman volunteer in the 49th's Light Company who was close to Brock when he was hit, “Our gallant General fell on his left side, within a few feet of where I stood. Running up to him I enquired, ‘Are you much hurt, Sir?' He placed his hand on his breast and made no reply and slowly sunk down.”

A legendary account has it that, with his last breath, Brock uttered the words, “Push on, brave York volunteers,” to rally the York militiamen. Another man who saw the general fall, militia private John Birney, recounted, “With the help of others, he was laid on the grass and the surgeon called out, but he was past human aid and never moved or spoke.”
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Following the death of General Brock, the counterattack he had led against the Americans faltered. With about four hundred soldiers in place at the summit, the Americans fought off British assaults and managed to capture twenty-one soldiers, including the young George Jarvis. Abandoning Queenston Village by about 9:00 a.m., the British retreated to the north. Now in a position to cross the river unimpeded, the Americans managed to send reinforcements to the scene of the battle, and a 6-pounder along with them. Disorganization and lack of will hampered the American effort at this crucial moment. Boats were still in short supply and some of the U.S. troops wandered off to plunder the village, while others who wanted no more of the fight returned to the American shore.

With the Americans established on the Canadian shore and occupying the heights above the river, swift action could consolidate their position and give them the edge in the next phase of what remained a very fluid battle.

The British command shifted to Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, who quickly mobilized his forces to drive the Americans from Canadian soil. He dispatched the 41st's Light Company, under the command of Captain William Derenzy, and about 160 Grand River warriors from Fort George, commanded by John Norton, William Kerr, and John Brant, in the direction of Queenston. The latter were a remarkable trio. John Norton, whose parents were Iroquoian Cherokee and Scottish, and who had spent his early years in Britain, was a fully accepted member of Mohawk society. William Kerr was an Indian Department officer and was married to Joseph Brant's daughter, Elizabeth. John Brant was the son of Joseph Brant.
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This force was equipped with two 6-pounders and a 5.5-inch howitzer. Sheaffe left Fort George for Queenston. Behind him, taking the same route, were 140 men from the 41st Regiment and some militiamen, including the Corps of Artificers, also known as the “Company of Coloured Men,” commanded by Captain Robert Runchey.
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While the British garnered their forces for an effective attack, the American commanders dithered. Without the counsel of his wounded cousin, Stephen Van Rensselaer was unsure what to do. At the onset of daylight, he ordered a massive artillery bombardment of Fort George and Newark from Fort Niagara. The rounds fired had been heated in a shot oven until they were nearly red-hot. The barrage soon had the courthouse, the jail, a brewery, and a number of homes in flames. The British managed to quell panic by bringing the fires quickly under control and launching their own artillery bombardment to silence the American guns. The dozen heavy guns at Fort George did not manage to knock out the American artillery but did succeed in reducing their volume of fire.

Having learned that the Americans had mounted to the Heights, Norton led his force into the woods, though half of them left, fearing for their families at Niagara. The remaining eighty warriors climbed the heights, using the forest to keep themselves concealed from enemy view. At about 11:00 a.m., they launched an assault on the American rearguard, quickly pushing the militiamen back to the main U.S. line. The Iroquois kept themselves low in the brush and were largely unaffected by the volleys the Americans fired at them. As was not unusual at this stage of the war, the inexperienced American soldiers often aimed too high.

The warriors soon charged out of the woods in a direct attack. This drew heavy return fire from the U.S. troops, and the Grand River men took some casualties and fell back. Norton's force managed to get to the south of the Americans and threaten their line, but the U.S. troops,
under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott, counterat
tacked and drove them back. Although this counterattack was partially successful, volleys from the warriors continued to harass Scott's troops, who were also subject to British artillery fire from below.

The fighting paused while Sheaffe led his 650 regulars and militia inland on a circular route up the Heights so that he would be in position to assault the enemy across flat ground. “Revenge the General!” the British shouted as they attacked the panicked Americans. Once Sheaffe charged, supported by the Iroquois on the flank, Scott's force collapsed. Having methodically mobilized his force and positioned them to the rear of the foe, Sheaffe had all but assured victory for the British side.

Aware of the vise closing in on his troops, Major General Van Rensselaer crossed the river to the Canadian side to hold a brief council with his officers. As he prepared to cross the river again to summon reinforcements, a number of panic-stricken American soldiers stormed his vessel and shoved off. When they reached the U.S. side of the river, they fled.

Meanwhile, as the British regulars, Canadian militiamen, and native warriors closed in on the U.S. troops on Queenston Heights, a fierce firefight erupted. The Americans resisted, but some of their officers were quick to favour retreat. After a final stand, the remnants of the American force that had crossed the river in the early hours of October 13 had no choice but to lay down their weapons.
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It took some time to halt the mopping-up by British forces, which in places was degenerating into slaughter. Some of the U.S. troops threw down their arms and ran for the boats on the shore, while others jumped off the cliff. Three times, the Americans sent forward men carrying a flag of truce in a desperate bid to get the message across that the fight was over. Some U.S. soldiers dove into the swift current of the Niagara River to try to swim to the other side as British troops and native warriors kept up a sporadic fire. At last, around 4:00 p.m., a British bugle call, repeated a number of times, stopped the shooting. The victorious British took a cache of American muskets and ammunition, as well as a 6-pounder, and sent a captured stand of New York militia colours to Britain to celebrate the triumph at Queenston.

Just two months after the fall of Fort Detroit, the battle along the Niagara River dealt a further blow to the American cause, not least to American national pride. Although no fully accurate numbers were available on the American side, Major General Van Rensselaer reported to Major General Dearborn that 60 U.S. soldiers died and 170 were wounded. During the following week, between eight hundred and one thousand Americans deserted their units across the river in New York.

Sheaffe's force suffered nineteen casualties, including five warriors. Eighty-five were wounded; among those, between seven and nine were warriors from Grand River.
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In his dispatches, Sheaffe singled out the Iroquois, John Norton in particular, stating that they merited “the highest praise for their good order and spirit.”
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Later, as civil and military leader of Upper Canada, Sheaffe bestowed on Norton the rank of “Captain of the Confederate Indians,” the same rank held by Joseph Brant during the American Revolutionary War.
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Following the Battle of Queenston Heights, most of the Six Nations warriors returned to Grand River. Norton and a small party stayed at Niagara until the end of 1812. During this time, the Americans tried several attacks that came to nothing.
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Taken prisoner along with the other Americans at Queenston, Winfield Scott and the regulars were marched to Lower Canada, while the militiamen were released. A year later, Scott was sent back to the United States in a prisoner exchange. Known as “Old Fuss and Feathers,” Scott rose to hold the position of commanding general of the United States Army for twenty years, longer than any other officer to hold the rank. After the War of 1812, he wreaked havoc on the Cherokee Nation in 1836, during the administration of President Andrew Jackson. This exercise in ethnic cleansing became known as the Trail of Tears. During the Mexican War of 1846–48, Scott commanded the southern arm of the two U.S. armies. At the end of that conflict, he was appointed military commander of Mexico City. Following an unsuccessful run for the U.S. presidency in 1852, Scott stayed on as general-in-chief of the U.S. Army. He held that position at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, and devised the Anaconda Plan to defeat the Confederacy, a strategy that would be used by succeeding commanders of the U.S. Army. Finally, in November 1861, suffering from gout and rheumatism, weighing over three hundred pounds, and unable to mount his horse, Scott resigned his military office.

The day after his defeat, Van Rensselaer, with an eye on his future career, sent a lengthy letter from his headquarters at Lewiston to General Dearborn, setting out the best possible case for himself. He explained that on October 5 he had written to General Smyth “requesting an interview with him . . . for the purpose of conferring on the subject of future operations.” By October 10, he had learned that “General Smyth had not yet then agreed upon any day for the consultation.” The following day, Van Rensselaer wrote, “Orders were . . . sent to General Smyth to send down from Buffalo such detachment from his brigade as existing circumstances in that vicinity might warrant.” Following his extensive review of the course of the battle, which he claimed had resulted in victory for American arms until the very end, he concluded, “The enemy succeeded in repossessing their battery, and gaining advantage on every side. The brave men who had gained the victory, exhausted of strength and ammunition, and grieved at the unpardonable neglect of their fellow-soldiers gave up the conflict . . . I can only add, that the victory was really won, but lost for the want of a small reinforcement; one-third part of the idle men might have saved all.”
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But for lack of cooperation with Smyth and the consequent failure to maintain enough troops to finish the job, the day would have been Van Rensselaer's, according to his own account.