Battle of Queenston Heights
Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAT : Battle of Queenston Heights
| Niagara campaigns |
|---|
| Queenston Heights – York – Fort George – Stoney Creek – Beaver Dams – 1st Fort Erie – Chippawa – Lundy's Lane – Cook's Mills – 2nd Fort Erie |
The Battle of Queenston Heights was a British victory of the War of 1812 which took place on October 13, 1812, near Queenston, Ontario. It was fought between the United States, led by Stephen Van Rensselaer, and the British, led by Sir Isaac Brock and Roger Sheaffe. The battle, the largest in the war to that point, resulted in the British army repelling a much larger American invasion force with no great loss but that of their commanding officer, killed by a sharpshooter.
Background to the battle
The United States invasion across the Niagara River was originally intended to be part of a three-pronged attack on Upper Canada's border strongpoints. General William Hull would attack Amherstburg through Detroit, General Henry Dearborn would cross the St. Lawrence River to take Kingston, and General Van Rensselaer would attack Queenston. The attacks, coupled with a fourth assault on Montreal in Lower Canada, would theoretically bring the colony to its knees and ensure a quick peace.However, the three attacks on Upper Canada would not go off. Hull was besieged in Detroit and, faced with the threat of a massacre by Britain's Native American allies, surrendered the city and his entire army at the so-called Battle of Detroit. Dearborn and his army were remaining, relatively inactive, at Albany, and seemed to be in no hurry to attempt an invasion (Dearborn would be replaced in 1813 with only minor successes to his credit). Van Rensselaer, meanwhile, was under considerable pressure to attempt his part of the invasion, both from his own men eager for battle, and from an American public chafing under the disgrace of Hull's surrender.
For his part, Stephen Van Rensselaer was, perhaps, not the best choice to command a major thrust of the offensive. Although he held the rank of militia major-general, Van Rensselaer had never commanded troops in battle, and was in fact considered the leading Federalist candidate for the governorship of New York. Possibly hoping to get Van Rensellaer out of the way, New York governor Daniel Tompkins put Van Rensselaer's name forward to command the American army, and he officially took command July 13, 1812. Stephen Van Rensellaer did secure the appointment of experienced soldier Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer (the General's second cousin) as his aide-de-camp, giving the General a valuable source of experienced advice.
American internal quarrels
Even with Hull's failure and Dearborn's inaction, Van Rensselaer's position appeared strong. While on September 1 he had only 691 unpaid men fit for duty, the arrival of reinforcements soon boosted his force considerably. In addition to his own force of around six thousand regulars, volunteers, and militia, Van Rensselaer had Brigadier-General Alexander Smyth's force of 1,700 regular soldiers under his command. However, Smyth, a regular officer himself, steadfastly refused to obey Van Rensselaer's orders or respond to his summons. As soon as his force reached the frontier, Smyth took it upon himself to deploy his force near Buffalo rather than with the main army at Lewiston. He also did not report to Van Rensselaer when he arrived, claiming he was "too busy".Smyth's disobedience did not end there. Van Rensselaer laid a plan for the main force to cross the Niagara and take the heights near Queenston while Smyth attacked Fort George from the rear. However, Smyth made no reply to Van Rensselaer's plan. When he was summoned to a council of officers to plan the attack, Smyth did not respond, nor did he reply to a sharper letter sent soon after. A direct order to arrive "with all possible dispatch" was also met with silence. Van Rensselaer, an amiable politician in a hurry to launch his attack, simply chose to proceed without Smyth rather than court-martial him and possibly delay the start of the battle.
Smyth did obey one order of Van Rensselaer's. Mere days before the attack, on October 10, Van Rensselaer sent orders to Smyth to march his brigade to Lewiston in preparation for the attack "with every possible dispatch" . The attack had been planned for Sunday, October 11 at 3:00 in the morning and Smyth set out upon receipt of the letter; however, he chose a bad route to Lewiston, in foul weather, on a road so bad that abandoned wagons could be seen "sticking in the road". At ten A.M. on October 11, orders reached Smyth that the attack had been postponed. Smyth then turned back to his camp at Black Rock rather than press on to Lewiston, expressing in a letter to Van Rensselaer written on October 12 that his troops would be in condition to move out again on October 14, a day after the now-postponed attack was to be launched.
The reason for the failure of the October 11 attack was simple. Over the previous few days, Colonel Van Rensselaer had been able to cross over to the British side under the escort of Brock's aide Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell, and as such had a fairly good idea of the lay of the land. Although Colonel Van Rensselaer was stricken down with fever, with the desire for action raging in his camp General Van Rensselaer resolved to launch the attack on October 11. However, with the American army formed up to cross in the early morning, one of the lead boatmen, a Lieutenant Sims, got cold feet. He rowed his boat away and abandoned the army, taking with him the better part of the oars that would be used for the crossing. By the time the oars could be replaced, the attack had to be set back. Surprisingly, this did not dampen the ardour of the soldiers to attack with immediate effect, and General Van Rensselaer set the second attempt for October 13.
British preparation
Brock was an aggressive commander, and his successful capture of Detroit had won him praise, the reputation as the "saviour of Upper Canada", and a knighthood which would only reach Upper Canada after his death. However, his superior at Quebec, Sir George Prevost, was of a more cautious bent, and the two clashed over strategy.It was Brock's intention to attack the United States again, crossing the Niagara, defeating Van Rensselaer and Smyth, and conquer upper New York State for the British. Prevost vetoed this plan, ordering Brock to behave more defensively, perhaps in hope that the Americans would be willing to come to terms if the British did nothing to irritate them. Brock's one aggressive action was to facilitate the siege of Fort Wayne on the Maumee River, which ended in a defeat of the Native attackers.
Particularly galling to Brock was an armistice concluded by Roger Sheaffe, under Prevost's orders, with Colonel Van Rensselaer on August 20. The terms of the armistice permit the use of the river by both powers as a common waterway, and Brock could only watch ruefully as American reinforcements and supplies were moved to Van Rensselaer's army without being able to take the slightest action. The armistice ended on September 8, by which time Van Rensselaer's army was considerably better supplied than it had been before.
On October 12, the day before the battle, by Brock's orders, Major Thomas Evans crossed the Niagara River under a flag of truce to request an immediate exchange of prisoners taken in a successful American raid on two British ships a few days before. Evans attempted to see Solomon Van Rensselaer, but was told that the Colonel was ill. Evans stuck around and was met by a man who claimed to be General Stephen Van Rensselaer's secretary, Toock. Toock was, in fact, probably Major John Lovett in disguise, and repeatedly stated that no exchange could be arranged until "the day after tomorrow". Evans was struck by the repetition of this phrase, and was able to spot several boats badly hidden by the shore under some brush. These convinced Evans that an invasion was planned for the thirteenth, and upon returning to the British lines met laughter and mockery from a council of officers. However, Brock took Evans aside, and after a meeting was convinced of the possibility.
The battle
Brock believed the US would attack his headquarters at Fort George, but, after the battle was joined, he learned instead that they were planning to invade across the Niagara River from Lewiston, New York. Brock, followed by about 1000 British troops, marched to Queenston to meet the invading force and support the thin British presence in the area.
The United States under Van Rensselaer launched the attack on the Queenston Heights at 3:00 in the morning, by crossing the Niagara River in a group of boats that proved too few to serve the needs of the large US invading force, and too small to carry artillery across the river. In the early stages of the battle, the British had only 300 men to resist the 6000 US soldiers coming across the river, and Brock's reinforcements had not yet arrived when the Americans first landed.
However, many of the US soldiers failed to cross the river at all, as, under a wilting bombardment, three of the boats (including the two largest) turned back for shore. Those troops which crossed the river were unnerved by the bombardment. Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer was hit by a musketball as soon as he stepped out of his boat on the Canadian shore. When Colonel Van Rensselaer quickly tried to form up his troops for the attack after being hit, he was promptly hit five more times and, though he would go on to survive, he spent most of the battle out of action, weak from loss of blood.
The first major face-to-face action of the battle occurred when American forces, commanded by Captain John E. Wool, encountered the garrison of the village of Queenston under Captain James Dennis. Wool and Dennis's forces fought a brief and indecisive skirmish, with the Americans absorbing more losses than the British but neither side doing significant damage. Until the arrival of General Brock and, later, General Sheaffe, Captain Dennis went on to be the officer most responsible for the defense of the heights, while Wool would later have a major role in the outcome of the battle and, indeed, the war.
Further calamity for the Americans ensued as Lieutenant-Colonel John Chrystie's boat, filled largely with relatively experienced and well-trained regular soldiers, came under fire. The boat's pilot, despite the efforts of Chrystie to restrain him, turned the boat back for shore. Chrystie's men were out of action without ever joining the battle, and though Chrystie himself tried to organize the rest of the men to cross the river, it was in vain. The loss of Chrystie's boat drew some controversy when the leader of a boat following his, Captain Lawrence, asserted that Chrystie had ordered him to retreat, leading to accusations of cowardice. Much of the second assault wave, led by Lieutenant-Colonel John Fenwick, was either shot out of the water by British cannon or forced into a hollow where British troops made quick work of them.
The British and American artillery also waged battle. The British had the most effective guns on the field that day, including a battery near the village, a large twenty-four-pounder cannon and a large carronade at Vrooman's Point (which was far enough from the battle that, despite its formidable size, the cannon was at the limit of its range and the carronade entirely useless), and, perhaps most vitally, an eighteen-pounder cannon at a redan on the heights. It was in the fight for that cannon that General Brock would lose his life.
The death of Isaac Brock
Despite initial failure, the United States continued to wage the battle on the other side of the Niagara. Captain Wool, seeing that the British cannon in the redan was causing great carnage amongst the American troops, suggested to Colonel Van Rensselaer that an attack be made using a fisherman's path that Wool had heard about from locals in the area. Van Rensselaer, about to be evacuated due to his wounds, assented, and Wool successfully charged up the Heights to capture the British cannon.Fortunately for the Americans, General Brock was there watching the battle, having arrived from his headquarters at Fort George at dawn trying to gather reinforcements to defend the Heights. When the Americans attacked the gun, Brock was driven back along with the small group of British regulars, managing only to quickly spike the gun. Brock, taking shelter in the far end of the town of Queenston, resolved to recapture the area immediately rather than wait for reinforcements, a decision that would prove fatal for the General.
Brock's first charge at the Americans, with a small group of the village's defenders, nearly managed to dislodge Captain Wool and his men, but a swift counter-strike pushed Brock back again. Despite the failure, Brock, having been wounded in the hand during the first charge, immediately tried to rally his men for a second charge, but his bright red coat made him an easy target, and he was killed by a US sharpshooter at about 1 pm. Brock's aide, Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell, led the second charge himself, despite being a lawyer by trade with little military experience. With his troops' strength augmented by Captain John Williams' small group of volunteers, Macdonell ran straight into Wool's heavily reinforced US army with his own men badly outnumbered. Macdonell's attack was a complete failure, as he was mortally wounded in the charge, Captain Williams was badly injured, and the British force was driven back completely.
According to legend, Brock's last words were "Push on, brave York Volunteers", but this is very unlikely, as Brock was not with the York Volunteers when he fell. Brock met the York Volunteers on his way to the Heights, but the charge on Wool's troops was made with the 49th Regiment. According to historian J. Mackay Hitsman, Brock's words "Push on the York Volunteers", a simple command not addressed to the York Volunteers, was transformed into the later legend.
Closing moves
The outlook was bleak for the British soldiers, and it would have been far worse had the opening of the battle unfolded differently. Little more than a thousand of General Van Rensselaer's men had crossed the Niagara River, and the militia, which knew nothing of the death of Brock or the silencing of most of the large British cannon, refused to cross in the few boats that remained. Moreover, British reinforcements, led by General Roger Sheaffe, were near, and Colonel Winfield Scott, in a group attempting to repair the gun captured from Brock, was set upon by John Norton and the Mohawks. Scott's men were driven back in a brief melée, and though none were killed, their spirits were worsened greatly by their fear of the natives.General Van Rensselaer, knowing of Sheaffe's impending arrival, attempted once more to exhort his militia into crossing the river, seeing that if he could get all his men across, the day might yet be won. Van Rensselaer, unable to cajole his men into joining the battle, attempted to convince the boatmen to cross the river and retrieve his soldiers from Canada, but the boatmen refused even that.
At the lead of the British reinforcements, Sheaffe planned to advance his men into the melée through the cover of the forest, shielding them from devastation by American artillery. A decidedly more careful commander than Brock, Sheaffe took his time forming his men up and preparing them for battle, and at 4:00 p.m., thirteen hours after Van Rensselaer launched his assault, the British reinforcements of almost one thousand men marched into the battle. The American militia, hearing war-cries from the Mohawks and believing themselves doomed, retreated en masse and without orders, leaving Colonel Scott with only three hundred stout defenders to resist the British force. Scott tried to cover the American withdrawal against Sheaffe's larger force, but, with the Mohawks furious over the deaths of two chiefs, he feared a massacre and surrendered to the British. Once the surrender was made, however, Scott was shocked and appalled to see five hundred US militiamen, who had been hiding around the Heights, coming out and surrendering as well.
Aftermath
Of General Van Rensselaer's 6000 troops, about 100 were killed and 300 wounded and another 925 taken prisoner, including Brigadier-General William Wadsworth, Colonel Scott, four other lieutenant-colonels and sixty-seven other officers. By comparison, the British suffered about fourteen men killed, with seventy-seven wounded including James Secord, husband of Laura Secord. General Van Rensselaer, his attack a dismal failure, resigned immediately after the battle, and was succeeded as senior officer on the Niagara by Alexander Smyth, the officer whose insolence had badly injured the invasion attempt.The British victory ended the United States's hopes of a quick victory in the war, and also doomed their efforts to invade Canada in 1812. Smyth still had his regulars at Buffalo, but very quickly drew the loathing of his soldiers and refused to launch an attack until he had three thousand men under his command. Universally castigated for his refusal to attack and with rumours of mutiny in the air, Smyth slipped away to his home in Virginia rather than remain at his post.
At Albany, the defeat of Van Rensselaer only increased Henry Dearborn's reluctance to act. With two armies already defeated, Dearborn was not keen on leading the third, and though he would launch two successful attacks on Fort George and York (present-day Toronto) in 1813, he did not cross the border in 1812. As a result, Van Rensselaer's army was the only one to launch a significant assault on Upper Canada in 1812, and his defeat forced the United States to start almost from square one for the 1813 campaign.
The question of who to blame for the defeat was one that was never resolved. Stephen Van Rensselaer's popularity remained high enough that he was able to launch an (unsuccessful) attempt to unseat Daniel Tompkins as Governor of New York, and later went on to serve in the United States House of Representatives. General John Armstrong, Jr., the Secretary of War for much of the war, pinned the blame on General Van Rensselaer in his Notices of the War of 1812. This provoked an indignant response from Solomon Van Rensselaer, who compared Armstrong to Benedict Arnold and laid the blame squarely on Lieutenant-Colonel Chrystie, who he accused of cowardice and said "to his failure may mainly be attributed all our disasters."
References
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.