The Battle for Queenston Heights – 13 October 1812

The Battle for Queenston Heights – 13 October 1812

General Henry Dearborn was in desperate need of a victory. President James Madison appointed him Commanding General of the United States Army shortly before the declaration of war on Great Britain. Dearborn arrived at a strategy to take Upper Canada (modern day Ontario) in an effort to cut the British off from the interior, and their native allies.

In New England, Dearborn, a Jeffersonian Republican, was contending with pro-British Federalists who were against the war. In the west, Brigadier General William Hull’s attack across the Detroit River on the British at Amherstburg instead resulted in the abandonment of Detroit to the British and their native allies. Dearborn’s own offensive on Montreal was hung up in camp near Albany as the Americans struggled with logistics, supplies, desertions, partisan politics, and appropriations. The United States had declared war on Britain in June, and after four months had little to show for their efforts.

The most promising place for Dearborn to find a victory was on the Niagara River, but even that was a dubious gambit. Western New York was at the fringe of the frontier, undeveloped, and accessible overland only by cart path. Bringing men and material west on Lake Ontario from Oswego meant having to outrun the Provincial Marine harbored at Kingston. British Forces on the Niagara Peninsula guarded developed farms and villages, within a day’s ride from the provincial capital at York. On the American side of the river, Buffalo, Black Rock, and Lewiston were weeks’ marches from the civilization of New York, Albany, and Oswego. The Niagara River separated the better developed province of the crown from the wilderness frontier of the new republic.

And the Niagara Peninsula of Upper Canada held its own strategic importance. It was the gateway to Crown territories to the west, and the home of Haudenosaunee allies of the Crown. Control of the peninsula allowed for British communication between the interior and Montreal, and an American victory there would provide the U.S. with a significant bargaining chip in any peace treaty in the future. 

But it would prove to be a tough place to launch an offensive on the British.

Yet the United States faced other obstacles to attaining a victory on the frontier. The American political landscape was a battlefield itself. Republicans in power were threatened by Federalists somewhat sympathetic to the British. Major General Stephen van Rensallaer, a Federalist politician and landowner, commanded U.S. forces mustered at Lewiston for the invasion of Canada. His troops were largely militia, citizens and farmers enlisted to defend New York from the British. Regular Army troops, under Brigadier General Alexander Smyth were assigned to van Rensselaer’s command but many of them refused to subject themselves to the militia’s command. 

Van Rensselaer held a numeric advantage in troops, with 2,000 regulars and 4,000 militia arrayed against British Major General Isaac Brock’s 1,300 regulars, militia, and native allies. But Brock held the advantage of the defense, along with two other significant elements — the swift-flowing Niagara River, and the precipitous Niagara River Gorge. Several miles to the north of the renowned cataracts and falls, the river runs at 4-5 mph at the narrow spot above Lewiston, with cliffs of 200 feet on either side of the river. Paddled boats would land hundreds of yards north of the entry point. Movement from the water’s edge to the top of the cliffs was made primarily on fisherman’s paths and game trails. In the dark, and the wet, the climb would be arduous and fraught. 

Van Rensselaer’s plan called for boats and troops to be ready for a river crossing in the early morning hours of 11 October. Weather — a driving rain — and an officer in charge of the boats who made off with the flotilla’s oars, prevented the Americans from keeping to this schedule. Regulars on the march from Black Rock to join van Rensselaer’s militia, turned back in the rain, for their quarters near Buffalo. On the 12^th, a British officer crossed under a flag of truce, seeking negotiations on returning prisoners. As he talked to van Rensselaer’s staff, he noted boats in the woods near the Lewiston encampment. Given the porous nature of the border, with civilians on either side accustomed to travelling across the water for daily trade and relations, the British had warnings. 

In the early hours of the 13^th, in the dark, the Americans attempted to stage boats and load at the landing above Lewiston. Van Rensselaer was ill, and unable to lead the crossing force. The entire evolution was disorganized and lacked cohesion. New York and Pennsylvania militia men balked at crossing into Upper Canada on a mission of conquest. Many of them expressed their thoughts that they had enlisted to defend their property and communities from the British. Lacking leadership, and experience, the militia men loading into the boats stumbled around in the dark; marshalling areas for boats and troops were not determined, the Americans attempted to push boats and men to the shore with the hope that everything would work out. The regulars at Black Rock hadn’t arrived in time to join the crossing force. And the greatest failure of the operation made itself apparent in the paltry number of boats made available to the crossing force. The Americans planned on moving 3,500 men across the river, in 12-boats, each holding 30-troops. The boatmen would be required to make numerous round trips, and under fire, once the British were alerted. 

Yet the Americans pressed on, and in diminished numbers, made the crossing, and attempted to scale the heights above the Canadian town of Queenston. As could be expected, the current made the crossing difficult, and it wasn’t long before British troops were alerted to the American incursion. American officers leading the force were quickly rendered hors de combat. Boats landed on the wrong shale beaches, dividing the force; pockets of Americans surrendered, and individual boats retreated with troops back to the American side. As British artillery was trained on the crossing force, American artillery attempted to provide counter-battery fire. After a first attempt up the cliffside, the Americans attempted to row upriver to a point where a fisherman’s path made the climb easier and was covered from British fire. 

A force of Americans made the height above Queenston. Fighting for the heights pulsed back and forth as reinforcements arrived for the British, and the Americans continued to send troops across the river in a now limited number of boats. Field guns proved to be the advantage for both sides, and they fought viciously to seize them from each other. Van Rensselaer ordered Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott to take charge of the American forces on the other side of the river. When he arrived for the fight the dispute between regulars and militia continued, and the militia on the Canadian side remained under militia officers. 

The British always had the advantage of resupply and reinforcement from Fort George, and the town of Niagara; the Americans needed to cross the river with resupply, and to evacuate their numerous wounded. The U.S. had not been able to build up enough troops on the Canadian side of the river quickly enough to make full advantage of their superiority in numbers; they lacked required boats. As Scott took command on the Canadian side, British reinforcements, in the form of a party of Mohawk warriors from Grand River, arrived. As only 1,300 Americans made it across the river, the two forces were evenly matched, but the presence of the Mohawks tipped the scales to the Crown’s advantage. New York militia and Army regulars had grown up hearing tales of the Native American’s prowess in battle, and their complete lack of humanity in the treatment of the fallen, and the dead. Scott led an amalgamation of regulars and militia into skirmishes in the woods pushing off a British counterattack. General van Rensselaer finally crossed the river, but never ascended to the heights, and shortly returned to the American shore. When he got back to the U.S. encampment, he encountered militia who refused to cross the river. Their motivation had probably been robbed by the sound of Mohawk war cries, and the constant sound of musket fire. And, they hadn’t signed up to conquer Canada. 

Realizing the severity of the situation, van Rensselaer sent word to Scott that he would send boats if Scott wished to withdraw in the face of British reinforcements. As the British solidified their lines, Americans began the retreat to the landings, and the cliffs. British fire continued. After ten hours of fighting, the Americans on the Canadian shore had had enough. Scott made three attempts at surrender before the British acknowledged his white flag.

The American foothold in Upper Canada was not to be in the year 1812. Americans remaining on the Canadian shore became prisoners. Scott was taken to Quebec, where he was paroled in November, returning to the Niagara Frontier in 1813 for the spring offensive. The U.S. suffered 100 killed, and another 1,000 captured. The British suffered fewer than 20 killed and 100 wounded, including their Mohawk allies. 

The Battle for Queenston Heights energized the subjects of Upper Canada; they had little interest in joining the United States, despite the American’s hubris. The American regulars at Black Rock never arrived for the fight, highlighting the lack of unity of command in the American force. Van Rensselaer stepped down from commanding the militia on the frontier, and command turned over to the regulars. 

Perhaps most remembered about the Crown’s stand at Queenston was the death of General Isaac Brock. Beloved by his men, he remains the major figure in the British fight. His monument dominates the heights overlooking Queenston, the Niagara River, and the Niagara Peninsula. 

In the spring, the Army would bring the Navy in on the fight for the Niagara Peninsula. The U.S. would successfully raid the capital at York, and conduct a full-blown amphibious attack on Fort George the next spring. The Niagara Peninsula would continue to host battles between the British and Americans through 1814.