Eleazer Wheelock Ripley was born in Hanover, in New Hampshire, in the
year 1782. His father, the Reverend Sylvanus Ripley, was professor
of divinity of Dartmouth College; his maternal grandfather was the
Reverend Eleazer Wheelock, founder of the institution of which his
father was professor, and the son a graduate. By the same side he was
lineally descended from the celebrated Miles Standish, the Scanderberg
of his day, whose memory is justly cherished as the early protector
of the Plymouth colony. The Reverend Mr. Ripley dying early in life,
left a large family under the care of his widow, to whose virtuous and
devoted attention may be ascribed the future success of her offspring,
particularly that of the subject of this memoir, then at the tender
age of five years. At the age of fourteen, Eleazer was admitted to
Dartmouth college, from which institution he received the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, in the year 1800, being only in the eighteenth
year of his age. His course, while an under graduate, had been
distinguished, and at the time of graduation he received the highest
honors of the college. After leaving college, he commenced the study of
the law in the town of Waterville, Massachusetts.
In this memoir we can only give slight traces of his early life, but
infer from the information of historians, that he gave early presages
in youth of what has since been realized in manhood. He was assiduous
and successful in his studies, and exemplary in his life and conduct;
and the early eminence attained by Mr. Ripley in his profession, tested
the assiduity with which he had devoted himself to the study of it. In
the year 1807, he was elected to the legislature of Massachusetts, from
the town of Winslow, in that state. At the period when the nation first
felt the effect of the offensive edicts of the two great belligerent
powers of Europe, Mr. Ripley’s political character strongly developed
itself. He was aware that the insults and aggressions of France would
lead to a war, for which just cause had been given, provided the equal
avidity and greater means of annoyance of Great Britain did not make
that country the mark of an equally just enmity.
When, in the year 1808, their combined hostility became more apparent
and oppressive, he conceived that was the moment for a declaration of
war, for which the country would never be better prepared, a crisis
which sooner or later must come.
In 1811, Mr. Ripley was elected to the chair of the speaker of the
house of Representatives of Massachusetts, vacated by the late Hon.
Joseph Story; over which he presided with distinguished ability and
impartiality.
In 1812, he declared for the necessity of a war, and was induced to
assume an active duty in it, by accepting a lieutenant-colonelcy in
the army of the United States. On leaving his civil and legislative
duties, Colonel Ripley was entrusted by the commander-in-chief with
the charge of a sub-district, from Saco to the eastern frontier, with
orders to place the same in the best posture of defence. To this was
added the superintendence of the recruiting service, which in a short
time embodied his recruits into a regiment, called the twenty-first, of
which he had the sole command.
With this regiment he marched to Plattsburgh, on the northern frontier,
where an army under the command of the late General Pike was encamped.
The winter of 1812 he spent with his regiment at Burlington, Vermont,
where he commenced that school of discipline and police which led his
regiment to its subsequent fame, and made it the model of the army.
In March, 1813, Colonel Ripley left his winter quarters for Sacket’s
Harbor, to join General Pike’s brigade, and prepare for the attack on
York, Upper Canada. On the 23d of April, the troops embarked on that
enterprise, and on the morning of the 27th, arrived before the town
which was the object of it. The immediate command of the assault was
entrusted to General Pike. On entering the bay of York the ships were
severely cannonaded by the forts defending the harbor, while they in
turn covered with their guns a large portion of the beach, on which
it was intended that the troops should form. On the debarkation of a
body of riflemen under Major Forsyth, the enemy fled to the woods,
giving time for the main body to form on the beach, and move in close
column to the attack of the principal fort. The troops thronged into
the works, when the awful explosion of the magazine took place, which
annihilated the leading columns, and mortally wounded their gallant
commander General Pike. During the confusion, the enemy called in his
detached parties, and concentrated his force in the town. Colonel
Ripley, who also had been wounded in the explosion, soon collected his
scattered army and prepared to charge the enemy, who made a precipitate
retreat, leaving an immense quantity of artillery and stores, some few
prisoners, and the town to make its own conditions. A surrender was
made, and Colonel Ripley’s regiment was stationed to guard the property
of the citizens from depredation. On the 30th, the army re-embarked
for the assault of Fort George; but a long and severe storm detained
and prevented its reaching its destination until the 27th of May, when
Fort George was assaulted and taken. On the 3d of June, Colonel Ripley
having been ordered to return to Sacket’s Harbor to organize the large
body of recruits collected during the winter, reached that place on the
11th instant, where he was detained by severe indisposition, until the
15th of July; from that time until October the regiment was employed
in an incessant course of instruction; the drill, general discipline,
and police, were carried to their highest perfection, which produced
the most successful results. In November following, Colonel Ripley and
the 21st regiment played a conspicuous part in the descent of the St.
Lawrence; after which they retired again to their winter quarters at
Sacket’s Harbor. In the spring of 1814, the army was put in motion for
the Niagara frontier. On the 15th of April, Colonel Ripley was created
brigadier-general, and early took his leave of the corps of his own
training, the 21st regiment. The command of General Ripley was not
augmented by his increased rank. The division of the army under General
Brown consisted of two brigades, of which General Scott commanded the
first, General Ripley the second. From the 4th of May until the 3d
of July, the army pursued its usual routine of instruction, when it
commenced the passage of the Niagara, and invaded the province of Upper
Canada. On the morning of the 5th, General Brown detached a portion
of General Porter’s volunteers to drive back a body of the enemy’s
light troops and Indians that infested a wood on the left wing of the
army. About mid-day Generals Brown and Ripley advanced to ascertain
the effect of this attempt, when it was observed that the firing,
which had been irregular and receding, from the circumstance of the
enemy’s having been driven back, changed into a regular heavy platoon
discharge. This discovery made it necessary for Generals Ripley and
Scott to join them; they had scarcely advanced when the enemy appeared
in line, and the brilliant action ensued, so well known, and so justly
celebrated, which caused the enemy to retire in such rapid and confused
precipitation across the Chippewa, that no attempt to impede his flight
could prove effectual. Everything that could not be moved in haste was
abandoned, and the enemy retreating into his entrenchments, left the
American army undisturbed possession of the ground in front of them.
From this until the 24th the army were in frequent skirmishes with
the enemy. As the succeeding day produced the most memorable battle
during the war, there are circumstances which require a somewhat minute
relation, and which are given on these pages from the concurring
testimony of the most distinguished officers present. During the
course of the 25th, a piquet stationed beyond the Chippewa, reported
the advance of a small party of the enemy on the Niagara road, and
that several columns had been thrown across the river to Lewistown, to
proceed towards Schlosser, to seize on our wounded and baggage. General
Scott, in order to draw them back, made a demonstrative movement toward
Queenstown. About two hours after its departure a fire of musketry was
heard, on which General Ripley immediately formed his brigade, to be in
readiness for an emergency of which he had not been apprised; scarcely
was it ranged, when the increased fire of musketry, accompanied by
heavy discharges of artillery, announced the unexpected certainty of
General Scott’s being engaged. Shortly afterwards an order arrived from
General Brown, directing him to advance.
The enemy was posted on an eminence, his artillery in the centre,
and from it, and a long line of infantry, poured on the first brigade
an annihilating fire: that brigade had held position in direct front
of the enemy, less than one hundred yards distance; the action had
continued nearly two hours, during which an attempt to turn our left
had been repulsed, but no advance had been made on the enemy’s line,
which, from its superior position, beyond the reach of material
annoyance from our artillery, kept up so deadly a fire that the first
brigade was fast sinking under the effect of it. The 25th regiment
line of brigade, under the command of Major, now General Jessup,
being thrown on the enemy’s right flank, captured General Riall, and
performed other acts of heroism reflecting the most unfading honor on
its gallant commander. At the same instant he formed the 21st regiment
under the command of the brave Colonel now General Miller, to attack
the cannon in direct line in front, and to push both the 21st and 23d
regiments upon the enemy. The two bodies struck the enemy’s line at
nearly the same moment, the 21st falling immediately upon the cannon,
the 23d on the infantry supporting it. At this moment of confusion it
is scarcely possible to do justice to many individuals most honorably
engaged. Colonel Miller, to whom the sole charge of the attack in front
was entrusted, evinced that unconquerable gallantry which is identified
by but one spirit, and that of the noblest sort. As the enemy was now
advancing under cover of the darkness, General Ripley gave orders that
the fire should be retained until that of the assailants was received,
in order that ours might be made more effective by being directed by
the light of his. In a few moments he advanced to within a distance
of ten or twelve paces, and, from a line far outflanking ours, poured
in one continued blaze of musketry; this was promptly answered by our
troops, and at this short distance, a tremendous conflict commenced:
for the space of twenty minutes an incessant gleam of light was emitted
from both lines; sections mutually recoiled where the severity of the
fire was most excessive; those on our side were inspirited and brought
again to the charge by the personal exertion of General Ripley, and
such a vigor infused in their resistance, that the enemy was forced
back in confusion, and fell to the bottom of the hill. During the short
period that intervened between this charge and a subsequent repetition
of it, the first brigade was forming itself in the rear of the second,
and at the moment when the two lines were in their second encounter,
General Scott passed his corps through an opening in the one before it,
to throw himself upon the enemy then engaged in a vigorous discharge
of musketry. From this point he again advanced to the attack of the
enemy’s right flank, but being compelled to fall back, he left his
brigade on the left and pushed along the line to the extreme right. The
enemy’s second charge being repulsed, General Ripley still retained
his position on the eminence. It was now midnight, and the enemy
being reinforced, advanced to his third and most vigorous effort. The
same deadly assault was made, which in like manner was frustrated and
forced back. This was a perfect skirmish; the enemy mingled himself
with our ranks; two of our guns were spiked, and the utmost confusion
prevailed in every direction; but by the firmness and bravery of the
21st regiment and its gallant officers, the line was preserved, and
the enemy again, and for the last time, recoiled from it in confusion
and dismay; leaving the line under General Ripley master of the field.
The darkness was now impenetrable, and although the field, on which
were strewed our dead and wounded, was ours, an enemy of superior force
was on its borders, and of the measures which his late discomfiture
might induce him to adopt we were necessarily ignorant. Under these
circumstances General Ripley condensed the remnant of our shattered
force and marched toward Chippewa. Such was the memorable battle of
Niagara; although the conquest was ours, one-third of our slender force
engaged in it were now wounded or dead. Some time after midnight the
army arrived at its encampment, when General Ripley waited on General
Brown, then wounded, in his tent. General Brown requested that General
Ripley should refresh the troops, of which the whole command now rested
with him, march them in the morning to the battle-field, and if the
enemy appeared there in force, to be governed entirely by circumstances.
At daybreak the army was arranged, and the march commenced, when they
found the enemy had been reinforced since the battle of the preceding
evening, and that it would be an act of madness to attack an enemy thus
increased, with two-thirds only of the force in the previous conflict.
The army consequently retrograded across the Chippewa, the bridge
of which they destroyed, and likewise everything that might aid the
enemy’s advance.
They reached Fort Erie on the 27th of July, and commenced a course of
labors that would now be deemed beyond the reach of accomplishment.
The redoubts, abattis, traverses and entrenchments were instantly
commenced, and the ability of an army in patience, vigor and hardihood,
was never more fully elicited; nor can any monument of military
exertion show a greater amount of labor accomplished in a shorter
period, than can the works of Fort Erie from the 27th of July until
the 3d of August. The impediments given to the advance of the enemy by
General Ripley, had retarded his approach until that day. By one or
two days of previous advance, he might have found the American army
unintrenched and exposed; he now found it in a situation to defy him.
He arrived and planted his main camp about two miles distant,
and in front of it a line of circumvallation extending around our
fortifications; it consisted of two lines of entrenchment supported by
block-houses; in front of these, and at favorable points, batteries,
from which an incessant and destructive fire was poured on our
encampment.
On the 14th of August, about midnight, General Ripley perceived
indications of an attack, which he had been for some time anticipating;
accordingly, about one o’clock on the morning of the 15th, the firing
of the piquet confirmed General Ripley’s impressions.
Lieutenant Belknap, who commanded the piquet, perceiving the enemy’s
column approach through the darkness, fired and retreated to the works.
The assailants were allowed to approach near to the works, when the
fire from the 21st and 23d regiments, and the incessant blaze of the
battery, drove them back in confusion, without the enemy having made
the least impression.
The charge was again renewed on the abattis between the battery
and the lake, which was again and in the same manner frustrated. A
third and last attempt was made to pass the point of the abattis,
by wading into the work by the lake. Like the other attempts, this
also was defeated, and the part of the enemy which survived the
destruction to which it had been exposed, fell back in confusion from
the works. Throughout these several and varied attacks from a force so
overwhelming, the second brigade evinced its accustomed discipline,
and its officers the high and gallant spirit they held in common with
their leader. Reinforcements were detached to different points, changes
of position made, new shapes of the enemy’s attack on the right, a
part deemed the least vulnerable, were found more effectual. He had
succeeded in making a lodgement in the bastion, which was left to the
defence of artillery only, unsupported by infantry, as had been the
previous custom. From this, however, he was soon dislodged, and after
a dreadful repulse, all became as tranquil on the right as it had
previously become on the left. When morning appeared, the flower of
the British army lay dead or wounded before the American works. The
commanders of the three assailing columns shared the same fate, and of
the force which the last night thronged toward the fortification, the
miserable remains of the greater part never returned from it.
The only prisoners taken during the night, were made by a sally ordered
by General Ripley. His position was deemed the least of any part of the
force engaged, while he inflicted on the enemy the greatest. The enemy
now commenced with batteries in every direction. Hot shot, shells and
other destructive implements were showered in vast profusion; every
house, tent and hut were perforated, and many of our best soldiers
destroyed. This warfare was kept up at intervals, by daily skirmishes,
until the 17th of September, the day allotted for the sortie which
terminated the siege; when the besiegers yielded to the besieged, and a
force regular and irregular, of two thousand men, drove the enemy from
his entrenchments, beat and scattered a regular enemy of four thousand
men.
Extract of an official letter to the secretary of war, after the
sortie of Fort Erie:--“On the morning of the 17th, General Miller was
directed to station his command in the ravine, which lies between Fort
Erie and the enemy’s batteries, by passing them by detachments through
the skirts of the wood; and the 21st infantry, under General Ripley,
was posted as a corps of reserve, between the new bastions of Fort
Erie, all under cover and out of the view of the enemy. About twenty
minutes before three, P. M., the left columns, under the command of
General Porter, which were destined to turn the enemy’s right, were
within a few rods of the British entrenchments. They were ordered to
advance and commence the action. Passing down the ravine, it was judged
from the report of musketry, that the action had commenced on our left;
orders were given to General Miller to seize the moment and pierce the
enemy’s entrenchment, between batteries No. 2 and 3, which orders were
promptly and ably executed. Within thirty minutes after the first gun
was fired, batteries No. 2 and 3, the enemy’s line of entrenchments,
and his two block-houses were in our possession. Soon after, battery
No. 1 was abandoned by the British. The guns in each were spiked by us,
or otherwise destroyed, and the magazine of No. 3 was blown up. A few
minutes before the explosion, the reserve, under General Ripley, was
ordered up; as he passed, at the head of his column, he was desired he
would have a care that not more of the troops were hazarded than the
occasion of the sortie required. General Ripley passed rapidly on.
“Soon after fears were entertained for the safety of General Miller,
and an order sent for the 21st to hasten to his support, towards
battery No. 1. Colonel Upham received the order and advanced to the aid
of General Miller. General Ripley had inclined to the left, and while
making some necessary inquiries was unfortunately wounded in the neck,
severely, but not dangerously. By this time the object of the sortie
was accomplished beyond the most sanguine expectations of the commander
and his generals. General Miller had consequently ordered the troops on
the right to fall back. Observing this movement, the staff of General
Brown was directed along the line, to call in the other corps. Within a
few minutes they retired from the ravine, and from thence to camp. Thus
one thousand regulars, and an equal portion of militia, in one hour
of close action, blasted the hopes of the enemy, destroyed the fruits
of fifty days’ labor, and diminished his effective force at least one
thousand men.”
After the battle, General Ripley was removed to the American side of
the river, and throughout a course of severe suffering for three months
his life was despaired of. At the commencement of his convalescence he
was removed by short journeys to Albany, where the best medical aid was
procured, yet it was nearly a year before he was sufficiently recovered
to attend to any military duties. The speedy return of peace caused a
reduction in the army, but General Ripley was retained with the brevet
and command of major-general. Congress testified their approbation
of his gallant services by a vote of thanks, and the presentation
of a gold medal, (_See_ Plate VI.;) and the states of New York,
Massachusetts, South Carolina and Georgia, and the country at large,
have by honorary tokens and expressions, testified their grateful
acknowledgments for his gallantry.
On the return of General Ripley’s health, he removed to his estate at
Baton Rouge, near New Orleans, from whence he was elected to Congress.
He died in 1834, in the fifty-second year of his age, respected by a
numerous circle of friends, who admired his bravery as a soldier, and
his virtues as a man.