The Battle of Lundy's Lane

About this book

Brigadier General Winfield Scott, United States Army, regarded the red-coated infantry before him. He had not expected to find the British in strength on this side of the Niagara River. His small, isolated brigade now faced an apparently superior enemy and could not rely on immediate assistance from his divisional commander, Major General Jacob Brown. A lesser man would have been daunted, but Winfield Scott - six feet, five inches tall, deep-chested, stern-visaged, and twenty-eight years old - decided to attack. What followed was one of the bloodiest and most hard-fought military actions in North American history. For nearly five hours, American, British and Canadian soldiers struggled desperately into the night in a close range, vicious battle. As one participant recalled, it was "a conflict, obstinate beyond description." When dawn came, more than 1600 men lay dead or wounded. In his interpretation of a still controversial action, Donald E. Graves fills in the planning and operational background of the Niagara campaign of 1814 - one of the most bitterly contested of military operations of the War of 1812. He narrates the action at Lundy's Lane and provides a thorough examination of the weaponry, tactics, organization, and prominent personalities of the two opposing armies. In what is possibly the most detailed analysis of musket-period combat to appear in print, The Battle of Lundy's Lane will appeal to readers interested in the much-neglected War of 1812, American and Canadian local and regional history, and the development of the U.S. and Canadian armies.