was in possession of the enemy.

In the following year the campaign commenced by the advance of a large
force of American troops under General Wilkinson into Lower Canada, but
they did not get beyond Lacolle Mill, not far from Isle aux Noix on the
Richelieu, where they met with a most determined resistance from the
little garrison under Colonel Handcock. Wilkinson retreated to
Plattsburg, and did not again venture upon Canadian territory. Sir
Gordon Drummond took Oswego, and succeeded in destroying a large amount
of public property, including the barracks. The greatest success of
the year was won in the Niagara country, where the English troops under
Drummond and Riall had been concentrated with the view of opposing the
advance of an American army into Upper Canada. The Americans occupied
Fort Erie, and Riall sustained a repulse at Street's Creek--now known
as Usher's--near Chippewa, although General Brown, who was in command
of a much superior force, did not attempt to follow up his advantage,
but allowed the English to retreat to Fort George. Then followed, on
the 25th of July, the famous battle of Lundy's Lane, where the English
regulars and Canadian militia, led by General Drummond, fought from six
in the evening until midnight, a formidable force of American troops,
commanded by General Brown and Brigadiers Ripley, Porter, and
Scott--the latter the future hero of the Mexican war. The darkness
through this hotly contested engagement was intense, and the English
{332} more than once seemed on the point of yielding to sheer
exhaustion as they contested every foot of ground against overpowering
numbers of well handled troops. The undaunted courage and persistence
of the British and Canadian soldiery won the battle, as the Americans
retired from the field, though with a remarkable perversion of the
facts this memorable event is even claimed by some American writers as
a success on their side. This was the last great fight of the war, and
will be always cited by Canadians as illustrating the mettle of their
own militia in old times.

[Illustration: Monument at Lundy's Lane.]

Drummond did not win other successes, and even failed to capture Fort
Erie. The American army, however, did not make another advance into
the country while he kept it so well guarded. Erie was eventually
evacuated, while the Americans concentrated their strength at Buffalo.
Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi was captured in this same s