STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 090
The Night Assault at Queenstown
11. The Night Assault at Queenstown (9)
Van Rensselaer had fixed upon the heights above the Canadian village of Queenstown, seven miles from the northern end of the river, as his objective. Landing below them, he intended to seize a position on their crest, and then fortify himself in an entrenched camp, to which he would draw over Smyth and his other reserves. As he had more than 3,500 of his own brigade present, while Brock’s 2,000 men were necessarily strung out along a front of thirty-six miles, and could not be concentrated till the second day, there was a reasonable probability of success. The opposition to him must be trifling at the first, and he ought to be well established in a central position, breaking the Canadian line of defence in two, before he could be attacked by any serious force. But Van Rensselaer had failed to reckon on the splendid energy of Brock and his men, and on the want of organization and coherence in his own command, of which three-fourths were raw and undisciplined militiamen.
On the night of October I2th-13th, Van Rensselaer threw his advanced guard across the rapid river, just above Queenstown, at a point where the passage was completely commanded by a six-gun battery on his own side. Some of his boats were carried too far down stream, but ten, bearing some 225 men, mostly of the 13th United States regulars, struck the bank at the appointed spot, put their men ashore, and returned for a second load. The passage had not escaped the notice of the British piquets along the bank, and before dawn opposition was beginning. At Queenstown there lay the two flank companies of the 49th Regiment, and two more of the York Militia. By four o’clock in the morning a small “containing force” of some ninety men, half regulars, half militia, was skirmishing with the landing party, which had established itself close to the bank, to wait for reinforcements. Riders had been sent up and down stream to warn Brock at Fort George, and the detachments at Brown’s Point, Chippewa, and the distant Fort Erie, that the invasion had come at last. Meanwhile the American boats were beginning to ply to and fro, only slightly incommoded by two one-gun batteries on the Canadian shore, of which one was soon silenced by the six guns opposite, and the other was too far from the passage-point to be effective.
When the second party of Americans came ashore, they drove in the British skirmishing line, though not before Colonel Solomon van Rensselaer (cousin of the general), three other officers, and many men had fallen. But a check was given to their advance when the rest of the garrison of Queenstown came up. Though still only 250 strong, against about 500, the 49th and York Militia companies fought strongly, and wasted for their adversaries the time which was so all-important for the mustering of the defenders.
To obtain a deluxe leatherbound edition of STUDIES ON THE NAPOLEONIC WARS, subscribe to Castalia History.
