crossed the river found itself helpless for lack of artillery and
intrenching tools and was compelled to fall back. Van Rensselaer forgot
his bickering with General Smyth and sent him urgent word to hasten to
the rescue. Winfield Scott, then a lieutenant colonel, came forward as a
volunteer and took command of young Captain Wool's forlorn hope.
Gradually more men trickled up the heights until the ground was defended
by three hundred and fifty regulars and two hundred and fifty militia.

Meanwhile the British troops were mustering up the river at Chippawa,
and the red lines of their veterans were descried advancing from Fort
George below. Bands of Indians raced by field and forest to screen the
British movements and to harass the American lines. The tragic turn of
events appears to have dazed General Van Rensselaer. The failure to save
the beleaguered and outnumbered Americans on the heights he blamed upon
his troops, reporting next day that his reinforcements embarked very
slowly. "I passed immediately over to accelerate them," said he, "but to
my utter astonishment I found that at the very moment when complete
victory was in our hands the ardor of the unengaged troops had entirely
subsided. I rode in all directions, urged the men by every consideration
to pass over; but in vain."

The candid fact seems to be that this general of militia had made a
sorry mess of the whole affair, and his men had lost all faith in his
ability to turn the adverse tide. He stood and watched six hundred
valiant American soldiers make their last stand on the rocky eminence
while the British hurled more and more men up the slope. One concerted
attack by the idle American army would have swept them away like chaff.
But there was only one Winfield Scott in the field, and his lot was
cast with those who fought to the bitter end as a sacrifice to
stupidity. The six hundred were surrounded. They were pushed back by
weight of opposing numbers. Still they died in their tracks, until the
survivors were actually pushed over a cliff and down to the bank of the
river.

There they surrendered, for there were no boats to carry them across.
The boatmen had fled to cover as soon as the Indians opened fire on
them. Winfield Scott was among the prisoners together with a brigadier
general and two more lieutenant colonels who had been bagged earlier in
the day. Ninety Americans were killed and many more wounded, while a
total of nine hundred were captured du