Forgotten Soldiers: The War of 1812 in the North

During the thirty months that the War of 1812 lasted, the heaviest fighting took place along the northern border of the United States, between Lake Champlain and Buffalo. Forgotten Soldiers is a three-volume trilogy that tells the story of the military campaigns that took place in this area from the spring of 1813 to the end of the war and of the men of all nations who fought in them. Two volumes have already been published -- Volume 1 is Field of Glory: The Battle of Crysler's Farm, 1813 and Volume 2 is Where Right and Glory Lead: The Battle of Lundy's Lane, 1814 -- and a third volume is in preparation. The second volume is described below.

Publisher: Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 1997

ISBN: I-896941-03-6

Details: Quality softcover; 332 pages, 6" x 9"; about 70 illustrations and maps; notes; bibliography; index; appendices with detailed orders of battle

Suggested Retail Price (may vary):
$18.95 Cdn/ $16.95 US

He found them in line along the track running west from the Peer house where, under the eye of their tall Commander, they had just knocked down a rail fence bordering the track in preparation for their advance against the British guns. James Miller was a thirty-eight-year-old native of New Hampshire described as "a rare union of personal excellency of character with a strength and firmness of mind and body." ...... A large, physically imposing man with a modest manner, Miller was a competent, singleminded and aggressive soldier and a good choice to lead the crucial attack.

Drawing up beside him, Brown said, "Col. Miller, take your Regiment and storm that work and take it." The tall, taciturn officer "raised his herculean form and fixed his eye, for an instant, intently upon the battery; then turning his bit of tobacco," gave a reply that was to become the stuff of American schoolboy legend - "I'll try, Sir!" Before Miller could move, however, the First Infantry attacked the hill. Although the First was the senior infantry regiment of the American army, it had not seen much action during the war but had remained dispersed in small frontier posts in the western territories. In the early summer of 1814 its widely-scattered companies had been consolidated and it was ordered to join the Left Division. The regiment was pitifully under strength. In his own words, Nicholas brought only a "detachment" of three companies totalling one hundred and fifty men into action. To march such a small unit into the middle of a hard-fought and confusing night action might have daunted a lesser man but the Virginian Nicholas was a strong-minded individual "who always inspires his troops with heroic ardor and who dares, without fear of slander to use caution where he thinks caution adviseable."

Painting by G.A. Embleton, courtesy Parks Canda

Following Ripley from camp, the First had cleared the chestnut wood, and halted on the Portage Road while Nicholas, who knew none of the senior officers present, tried to get some orders. The British guns had ceased firing but he was told to get his men off the road because their presence would draw artillery fire. Nicholas moved into the fields west of the road, where he met Winfield Scott, who pointed out to him the location of the enemy artillery and the necessity of attacking it. Wood then rode up and conducted him to a point west of the orchard behind the Peer house. McRee arrived next and informed Nicholas that the Twenty-First, on his right, were about to attack the British battery and that he was to move "to the left and form a line facing the enemy on the heights with a view to drawing off his force and attracting his attention." As his company formed up, thirty-four-year-old Captain John Symmes from the Michigan Territory, concerned that his green soldiers would prove unequal to the task, scrutinized their faces closely while giving them "a few exciting words" and was reassured by the resolve he saw reflected there.

Although Brown's intention had only been for Nicholas to mount a demonstration, his order must have been garbled in transmission because the Virginian led his regiment straight at the British artillery. From their position on the hill, Maclachlan's gunners could see little of the southern slope and the fields in front. The smoke of battle had cleared and the moon was low in the southwest sky, but it did not illuminate the lower slopes the hill, which were shrouded in darkness. The gunners could, however, clearly hear the shout of orders and the sounds of marching troops as Ripley's brigade deployed and occasionally they would fire a round to the Americans on the qui vive. ....... Aware that something was happening to their front but uncertain what it was, Maclachlan and his men loaded their guns and waited.

As the First Infantry advanced in line out of the darkness in front of the British guns, Maclachlan opened a furious fire with canister and round shot. Fortunately for the Americans, the British gunners' elevation was too high and most of the rounds passed harmlessly overhead. With Nicholas and his adjutant, Lieutenant John A. Shaw, both mounted and urging them on, the First moved closer to the British guns. The gunners corrected their aim and now the Americans began to take casualties ...... As the fire intensified, Nicholas realized that it would be suicidal for his tiny unit to attack straight into the muzzles of the British guns. Concluding that there "was no possibility of my annoying the enemy and a certainty of his destroying my men," the Virginian ordered the First Infantry to "right about face" and march back down the hill. Ignoring a staff officer who shouted, "Where are you going?" Nicholas then reformed his regiment in line at the base of the hill.

Map courtesy William Constable

His abortive attack had not been in vain; it had drawn the attention Maclachlan's gunners, and in the noise and confusion of the First Infantryt's advance and retreat, they failed to hear or see the approach of Miller's Twenty-First Infantry up the southeast slope of the hill. ...... It was about 9:15 P.m. when the Twenty-First moved quietly up the hill, in a line of two ranks, with their "bayonets at a charge ." The muzzle flashes of the British guns firing at the First Infantry illuminated the faces of the advancing men and one later admitted that as he climbed he felt "damned bashful." For much of their progress up the steeper southeast slope of the hill, the Twenty-First were moving in "dead" ground and invisible to the British gunners and the infantry behind them. There were no enemy skirmishers to impede or warn of their advance and in a few moments they had reached the old rail fence overgrown with shrubbery that surrounded the cemetery and the meeting house. They were now about a hundred feet from the muzzles of the guns and could see the gunners' "port fires and slow matches burning and ready." Miller "very cautiously" ordered his men "to rest [their muskets] across the fence, take good aim, fire & rush."

Maclachlan had ceased firing at the First Infantry, who had disappeared into the blackness at the bottom of the hill. His subordinate, Mackonochie, had just arrived from the Twelve-Mile Creek bringing three 6-pdr. guns and the two gunners were probably too involved in the process of positioning these pieces, while the gun detachments were intently watching where the First Infantry had disappeared, to notice the quiet movement of the Twenty-First to the cemetery fence. The American were spotted at the last moment - Norton was conversing with two officers when one of them "enquired what Body of men it might be that were approaching." Going towards them, Norton "observed the Moon glimmer faintly on the plates of their Caps, the form of which denounced them to be our Enemies, - before I could speak, they fired."

The well-directed American volley cut down Maclachlan's startled gunners so that "not one man at the cannons was left to put fire to them." Maclachlan was wounded and nearly twenty of his men became casualties. Before the dazed survivors could react, the Twenty-First, with Miller and their colours in the lead, pushed the rail fence flat, charged and were in among the gun detachments with their bayonets. The "fight was but for a moment" and most of the British gunners either fled or surrendered. ......

 

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