struggle of the American armies on the northern frontier, a confused
record of defeat, vacillation, and crumbling forces, which was redeemed
towards the end by troops who had learned how to fight and by new
leaders who restored the honor of the flag at Chippawa and Lundy's Lane.
Although the ambitious attempts against Canada, so often repeated, were
so much wasted effort until the very end, they ceased to be inglorious.
The tide turned in the summer of 1814 with the renewal of the struggle
for the Niagara region where the British had won a foothold upon
American soil.

In command of a vigorous and disciplined American army was General Jacob
Brown, that stout-hearted volunteer who had proved his worth when the
enemy landed at Sackett's Harbor. He was not a professional soldier but
his troops had been trained and organized by Winfield Scott who was now
a brigadier. After two years of dismal reverses, the United States was
learning how to wage war. Incompetency was no longer the badge of high
military rank. A general was supposed to know something about his trade
and to have a will of his own.

With thirty-five hundred men, Jacob Brown made a resolute advance to
find and join battle with the British forces of General Riall which
garrisoned the forts of St. George's, Niagara, Erie, Queenston, and
Chippawa. Early in the morning of July 3, 1814, the American troops in
two divisions crossed the river and promptly captured Fort Erie. They
then pushed ahead fifteen miles until they encountered the British
defensive line on the Chippawa River where it flows into the Niagara.

The field was like a park, with open, grassy spaces and a belt of
woodland which served as a green curtain to screen the movements of both
armies. Riall boldly assumed the offensive, although he was aware that
he had fewer men. His instructions intimated that liberties might be
taken with the Americans which would seem hazardous "to a military man
unacquainted with the character of the enemy he had to contend with, or
with the events of the last two campaigns on that frontier." The
deduction was unflattering but very much after the fact.

The British attack was unlooked for. It was the Fourth of July and in
celebration Winfield Scott had given his men the best dinner that the
commissary could supply and was marching them into a meadow in the cool
of the summer afternoon for drill and review. The celebration, however,
was interrupted by firing and confusi