e, and another battalion has forded higher up and
swept round to take the Canadians on the flank. The Canadians must
either flee in such blind panic as Procter displayed at Moraviantown,
or turn and fight. Indians in ambush, reenforcements from Fort George
and Queenston formed in three solid columns, the English wheel to face
the foe. First there is the rattling clatter of musketry fire from
shooters behind in the {372} grass. Then the solid columns break from
a march to a run, and charge with their bayonets. The artillery fire
of the Americans meets the runners in a terrible death blast; but as
the front lines drop, the men behind step in their places till the
armies are not one hundred yards apart. Then another blast from the
heavy guns of the Americans literally tears the Canadian columns to
tatters. As the smoke lifts there are no columns left, only scattered
groups of men retreating across a field strewn thick with the mangled
dead. Out of twelve hundred men, the Canadians have lost five hundred.
The charge of the forlorn twelve hundred at Chippewa against the
artillery of four thousand Americans has been likened to the charge of
the Light Brigade in the Russian War. Though the Canadians were
defeated, their heroic defense had for a few days at least checked the
advance of the invaders. And now the position of the beleaguered
became desperate. At Fort George, at Queenston, and at Burlington
Heights, the men were put on half rations.

Why did the Americans not advance at once against Queenston and Fort
George? For three weeks they awaited Chauncey's fleet to attack from
the water side, so the army could rush the fort from the land side; but
Chauncey was ill and could not come, and the interval gave the
hard-pressed Canadians their chance. Drummond comes from Kingston with
four hundred fresh men; also he calls on the people to leave their
farms and rally as volunteers to the last desperate fight. This
increased his troops by another thousand, though many of the volunteers
were mere boys, who scarcely knew how to hold a gun. Then, from a
dozen signs, Drummond's practiced eye foresaw that a forward movement
was being planned by the enemy without Chauncey's cooeperation. All the
American baggage was being ordered to rear. False attacks to draw off
observation are made on Fort George outposts. American scouts are seen
reconnoitering the Back Country. Drummond rightly guessed that the
attack was being p