under the batteries
at Oswego, and in the teeth of a sustained fire of cannon and musketry,
"gathered in" that historic town and sixty prisoners.

To and fro, like a pendulum, swayed the scene of action--to-day east,
to-morrow west. Colonel Campbell and 500 American soldiers, with nothing
better to do, made a bonfire of Port Dover, the incident being
officially described by the U.S. War Department as "an error of
judgment." Then General Brown, backed by an army of 6,000 U.S. veterans,
swooped down like "a wolf on the fold" on Fort George, and annexed it
and the garrison of 170 men. The British general, Riall, still
possessing the fighting mania, and some 1,800 men, locked horns with
General Brown and 3,000 of his veterans, and the Battle of Chippewa
added another victory to the American record. The enemy then pillaged
St. David's, while Riall--both sides having suffered heavily--retreated
to the head of Lundy's Lane, a narrow roadway close to the Falls of
Niagara, and stood at bay.

Three weeks elapsed, when General Drummond, realizing Riall's danger,
hastened from York to his assistance, reaching Lundy's Lane with 800 men
at the moment that General Brown, with his reinforced army of over 4,000
men, was within 600 yards of the British outposts. A moment later the
contest was on, the bloodiest and probably the most brilliant battle of
the whole campaign. It was a bitterly contested fight for seven hours--a
death struggle for the survival of the fittest. During the first three
hours the British force numbered only 1,640, until reinforced by 1,200
additional combatants. All through the long hours of the black night the
battle waged furiously. Charge succeeded charge, followed by the screams
of the mutilated and the dead silence of the stricken. Over all boomed
the muffled thunders of Niagara. The big guns, almost mouth to mouth,
roared crimson destruction. Though bayonets were crossed, and the
fighting was hand to hand and desperate, and sand and grass grew ghastly
and slippery with the sheen of blood in the fitful moonlight, the
British, notwithstanding the advantage in weight and numbers of the
enemy, held their ground. When day was breaking, and the American
general found his casualties exceeded one thousand, he withdrew his
shattered army of invaders to Fort Erie. The British loss was 84 killed
and 557 wounded. Lundy's Lane has been likened to the storming of St.
Sebastian or the deathly duel at Quatre Bras. Both inva