QUEENSTON HEIGHTS
IT has been pointed out that the forces under Brock were widely
scattered. His main body was at Fort George, seven miles from Queenston.
At Brown’s Point, three miles away, there was a battery, and a single
gun was mounted at Vrooman’s Point, a mile distant. In the village of
Queenston Captain Dennis commanded the grenadier company of the 49th
Regiment; Captain Chisholm was stationed there with a company of the
second York; Captain Hall’s company of the 5th Lincoln Militia brought
the whole force at Queenston to about three hundred men. At a vantage
point on the height itself was stationed Captain Williams with a light
company of the 49th, supporting the crew of a redan battery of one
eighteen-pounder gun.
Van Rensselaer was confident of victory. He deputed the attack to his
cousin, Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, an officer of the regular army,
and to Lieutenant-Colonel Christie, who between them commanded six
hundred men, half militia and half regular. The first of these men
embarked at three o’clock in the morning, when the landscape was dark
and dismal and rain was falling, in a boat from the Lewiston landing.
Their oars were muffled, but the sentries upon the heights on the other
side detected their approach. They fired into the boat, and the noise
brought Captain Dennis and his men at a run. More firing ensued. Colonel
Van Rensselaer, who was in the leading boat, was badly wounded. The
invasion was checked for the moment, and such Americans as had effected
a landing were compelled to hide in the brush overhanging the bank.
Lieutenant-Colonel Christie’s boats were less fortunate. A current
carried them down stream, and they had to return to Lewiston, to set out
again. Under Colonel Fenwick a force of regulars followed the advance
party, but their boat was swept below Queenston and beached there. The
defenders on the height had it at their mercy and fired, wounding
Fenwick and eventually compelling the surrender of the whole boatful.
Another boat which landed at Vrooman’s Point met the same fate.
The defenders’ guns, while they warned the Canadians also warned those
American soldiers still at Lewiston of the opposition to the invading
force. The gunners at Lewiston opened fire on Queenston Heights, in an
endeavor to cover the landing of the attacking troops, while the
Canadian batteries kept on with their grim work of firing volleys into
the boats in midstream. Meanwhile Brock at Fort George was uneasy. He
had sat up most of the night of October 12th making his plans and
writing despatches. He seems to have expected an engagement almost
immediately, for he wrote a letter to his brother about it in which he
said: “If I should be beaten the province is inevitably gone.” He had
hardly gone to sleep on the night of October 12th when the sentry, who
had heard the firing at Queenston, aroused him. So it had come! He
wasted no time, but was soon galloping, unattended, under darkling skies
and pouring rain, to Queenston.
Captain Cameron was at Brown’s Point with a body of men, watching the
battle anxiously. A messenger came to him and urged that immediate word
be sent to General Brock. Lieutenant Jarvis put spurs to his horse and
galloped away, intent on getting to Fort George in the shortest possible
time. He had not gone very far before, through the darkness and mist, he
discerned the general. Brock was riding hard, anxiety on his face, index
to the fear he felt for Canada. He did not even stop but, motioning to
Jarvis to turn his horse and follow, kept on in his grim journey. Jarvis
caught up to the general, and, as they were galloping, he gave Brock his
portentous news. Dawn was just breaking when Brock told Jarvis to hasten
to Fort George with instructions to Major-General Sheaffe to bring his
whole reserves to Queenston. He also ordered Jarvis to tell the Indians
at Fort George to occupy the wood on the right when Sheaffe’s troops
came on. Brock wasted no time in getting to Brown’s Point. On the way he
passed a company of the York Volunteers and instructed Captain Cameron,
commanding them, to follow him immediately. He sped on past Vrooman’s
Point, hastily acquainting Captain Heward with what had happened, and
was very soon at Queenston. He climbed the Heights to the point where
the redan battery was stationed, so that from there he could command a
view of the stream.
In the village of Queenston Captains Chisholm, Dennis, and Hall were
making a brave fight of it against superior forces. Brock, seeing their
predicament, detached Captain Williams and his men and sent them to
help. This left him unprotected, except for eight artillerymen. Day had
dawned and turning his head, Brock saw above him, on the summit of the
heights, a detachment of about sixty American soldiers. The odds were
too great, and the general, with his artillerymen and the crew of the
eighteen-pounder gun, returned to the village, leaving the gun behind.
The British had made one mistake. They had left a path leading up the
bank of the river to the heights unguarded. They had deemed it too
difficult for an attacking force to climb, but this underestimation of
the courage of the enemy cost them dearly. Captain Wool, a United States
regular army officer, reached the summit, and it was he and his sixty
men that Brock saw.
Meanwhile, the battery and the infantry in Queenston village were
keeping the invaders at bay with great difficulty. The eighteen-pounder
had been left behind, and Brock, who as we have seen, knew the
inspiration of personal example, decided himself to win the gun back.
With two companies of the 49th and a hundred militiamen he set out for
the Heights, crying: “Follow me boys.” At the base of the hill he rested
his men. A little later he dismounted, climbed over a low stone wall,
and, his sword flashing, charged up the hill in front of his men.
Captain Wool had been reinforced and now had four hundred men under his
command. One of these men stepped in front of the rest and shot down
General Brock. The bullet struck him in the right breast near the heart.
The wound was fatal, and the death of their commander, more perhaps than
the continuous fire poured upon them from the heights, forced the
British to retire. The underestimation of the enemy had indeed been
costly.
Some discrepancy exists as to what were Brock’s last words. According to
Lieutenant Jarvis, who was immediately at his side when he fell, with
the question: “Are you hurt, Sir?” Brock did not reply, but, pressing
his hand to his chest, “slowly sank down.” This is the most probable
version, as it is likely that he was wounded too severely to say
anything at all. Others have it, however, that, just before he died
Brock cried: “Push on, brave York Volunteers!” This story probably has
its origin in the early shout to Captain Cameron, to bring up his men.
Captain Glegg, who acquainted William Brock the next day with the news
of the General’s death, said that, as he fell Brock whispered: “My fall
must not be noticed or impede my brave companions from advancing to
victory.” It is not likely, however, that a plain man like Brock would
have struck an attitude so dramatic. The story of Lieutenant Jarvis
seems most nearly to fit the case. Whatever he said or did not say, this
man of action died as he had lived, bravely and as a man.
Brock’s death filled his men with a just rage, and before night the cry,
“Revenge the General!” was heard from one end of the forty mile line to
the other. His spirit breathed “an inextinguishable flame,” and the
soldiers at Fort George drove the Americans out with little trouble. At
Fort Erie, the men behind the guns, saddened and awed by the death of
their beloved leader, redoubled their efforts on the Americans at Black
Rock.
The force which Brock himself had been leading had to retreat, leaving
behind the gun which had cost them their leader’s life. With them they
bore his body to Queenston. When his men looked at his corpse they might
say as Antony did of Caesar’s body, “Here is himself, marr’d,” and the
sight of this “bleeding piece of earth” spurred them on in his name and
for his sake.
His men tried again, after his death, to take that fateful gun.
Vrooman’s Point and Brown’s Point furnished their quotas of York
Volunteers to reinforce the troops from Queenston, as Brock had
commanded, and about ten o’clock, under Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell,
Brock’s aide-de camp, another attack was made on the Americans on
Queenston Heights. This too was unsuccessful. Again the troops had to
retreat, while their leader was mortally wounded.
The Americans were sure that they had won a great victory. Messengers
were despatched to Albany with the tidings of the death of Brock and
Macdonell, and the city gave itself up to rejoicings. But the joy was
premature.
It became apparent to Van Rensselaer, who with Lieutenant-Colonel
Christie had seen, from the captured redan battery, a long line of
Canadians marching to Queenston, that another battle was inevitable.
These were the reinforcements moving to the front under the command of
Major-General Sheaffe. Van Rensselaer crossed the river, but was met
with a flat refusal from his men to cross the stream to the Canadian
side. The New York militia, who by this time had seen their dead and
wounded and had heard, justly enough, of the bravery of the “Green
Tigers”—this was the name given to the men of the 49th because of the
green in their uniforms—were terror-stricken. While Van Rensselaer was
alternately persuading and threatening, a force of Indians, commanded by
Brant and a young Scotsman, Chief Norton, who had been made an Indian
Chief, had quietly left Fort George, climbed the Heights, and showed
themselves on the left of the Americans. There were not enough of them
to do very much real harm, but they appear to have stricken fear into
the heart of the enemy by their wild cries and to have caught a number
of them and punished them pretty severely.
Major-General Sheaffe commanded about seven hundred men. When he had
looked over the situation, he decided that the best attack could be made
from the rear. He therefore placed some artillery under Lieutenant
Holcroft in a courtyard in the village of Queenston, to check any
attempt the foe made to cross. Along the Chippewa road near the Niagara
river troops were advancing to join Sheaffe. About one hundred and fifty
Indians had moved eastwards from the little town of St. David’s and were
lying in ambush in the woods on the enemy’s right front. Sheaffe himself
advanced with forces now numbering about a thousand. The enemy were
therefore in a position to be attacked from all sides.
The conflict began again at three o’clock, and the opening shot seems to
have been fired by the troops in Queenston who trained their guns on the
river. At the same time the men on the British left attacked the enemy’s
front. They were guided by Indians, who knew every inch of the ground on
the west of the hill. These guides led Sheaffe’s men through the heavy
woods, so that they might attack on this flank. This would be quite
unexpected by the enemy. The Niagara militia with two guns and a company
from the 41st Regiment, were on the right. The York and Lincoln militia,
backed up by the 49th, were in the middle. A company of negroes,
refugees from the United States, gave material assistance to the
British. The six hundred American soldiers on Queenston Heights were
surprised. Instead of an attack from down-stream they had to face one
from the left. They were caught like rats in a trap, but fought
valiantly. They saw that escape was impossible, for the swift current
flowed behind them and they had no boats to take them back to the
American shore. Besides, they faced almost double the number of men.
Lieutenant-Colonel Winfield Scott of the regular army was their
commander, and he was a brave man. His men fired on the advancing
Canadians, but Scott knew he was outnumbered. To the accompaniment of
the savage cries of the Indians, Sheaffe’s men came on in a determined
bayonet charge. The Americans broke in disorder. They had many dead and
dying already, and the rest turned tail and ran to the edge of the
precipice. Half crazed, many threw themselves over. The rest made for
the river bank, but there were no boats, and their only way of escape
was by way of swimming. Few were able to breast the current, and many
perished in the cruel stream. The Americans were badly beaten, and
Scott, having made a brave fight, surrendered all his men then on the
Canadian side to General Sheaffe. It is ten thousand pities that the
gallant Brock was not there to see the result of the work of his hands.
The British took nearly a thousand prisoners, among whom was General
Wadsworth and about seventy other officers. The British on their side
had lost eleven killed and something like sixty wounded. The Indians, no
less gallant, had losses of five killed and nine wounded. History
differs as to the American casualties. There were probably nearly a
hundred killed and about two hundred wounded. So the inextinguishable
flame of Brock’s spirit had blazed the way to victory, for Queenston
Heights was a great victory. Canada, however, grieved so much at the
death of Brock, that not even the feat of arms of his successor
mitigated her sorrow.
To the Americans the death of Brock was “equivalent to a victory.”
President Madison, in his next message to Congress, said: “Our loss at
Queenston has been considerable and is to be deeply lamented. The
enemy’s loss, less ascertained, will be the more felt for it includes
among the killed their commanding general.”
After the battle Brock’s body was taken from Queenston to Fort George.
It was buried under one of the bastions of the fort, and beside it was
laid the body of Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell. During the burial of
Canada’s great general, Lieutenant-Colonel Winfield Scott, now a
prisoner, sent a request to the officer commanding the United States
troops that the flag at Fort Niagara be flown at half-mast as was the
Canadian flag at Fort George, and when the Canadian guns boomed out
their respect for the dead general the American guns responded.