ached
in column, attempting to deploy under a most galling fire, and the
result was, as might have been anticipated, fearfully disastrous. With
151 men killed and 320 wounded, among whom was Lieutenant-Colonel, the
Marquis of Tweedale, the British were compelled to retire. Riall's
object in retiring was to gain his intrenched camp, but General Brown,
who now commanded the Americans, discovered a cross road, and Riall,
abandoning Queenston, fell back to Twenty Mile Creek. The loss of the
Americans was 70 killed and 9 officers and 240 men wounded. This was
the most sanguinary of any battle that had been fought during the war,
and the enemy, gaining courage, advanced gradually, and made
demonstrations upon Forts George and Mississaga. On the 25th of July,
Brown, not considering it expedient to advance and, unsafe to stand
still, retreated upon Chippewa, the village of St. David's having been
previously set on fire, by a Lieutenant-Colonel Stone, whom Brown
compelled to retire from the army for his barbarity. General Riall now
again advanced, when the enemy wheeled about and endeavoured to cut him
off from his expected reinforcement. But he failed in doing so, General
Drummond having come up with about three thousand men, of whom eighteen
hundred were regulars. The enemy was five thousand strong, but General
Drummond seized a commanding eminence which swept the whole field of
battle. Nothing daunted, however, by this superiority of position, the
Americans resolutely advanced to the charge, and the action, which
commenced about six in the evening, soon became general along the whole
line, the brunt of the battle falling, nevertheless, upon the British
centre and left. General Riall, who commanded the left division of the
army was forced back with his division, wounded, and made prisoner. The
centre firmly maintained their ground. It was composed of the 89th, the
Royals, and the King's regiment, well supported by the artillery, whose
guns, worked with prodigious activity, carried great havoc in the
enemy's ranks. Brown soon perceived that unless the guns were captured,
the battle was lost; and he consequently bent all his energies to the
accomplishment of that object. He ordered General Millar to charge up
the hill and take the guns. The order was vigorously obeyed and five
guns fell into the hands of the Americans, the British artillerymen
being positively bayoneted in the act of loading, while the muzzles of
the American gun