STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 091
A Hero's Fall
11. A Hero’s Fall (10)
About seven o’clock Brock himself came upon the scene absolutely alone: he had outridden his solitary aide-de-camp, and took up his post on the edge of Queenstown Heights, overlooking the scene of the skirmish. Below him he could see the slow advance of the Americans in the flat by the river, the boats crossing and recrossing behind them, and the camp at Lewiston slowly disgorging its battalions into the river craft. His whole confidence lay in the hope that his reinforcements from Fort George and Chippewa—four companies of the 41st, two of militia, and some 200 Indians—would be up in time to stop the attack before it had been reinforced to an overwhelming strength. Therefore it was necessary for the troops already on the ground to hold out with all desperation. Brock’s first order was for the last unengaged units—the light company of the 49th and Chisholm’s company of the York Militia—to charge in hard. But presently he saw that he was out-flanked: by an unobserved fishermen’s track along the steep slope of the heights, a party of the 13th United States regulars, on the extreme American left, was working itself up to the crest.
The General was standing by the one-gun battery on the edge of the heights, whose garrison of twelve men was now his sole reserve. When the musket-balls began to fall around him, he was forced to retire, and with a rush some 150 Americans reached the crest, seized the battery, and took up a position about it. It was absolutely necessary to keep them back, and Brock called up from the skirmish below the nearest men that could be caught, some ninety regulars and militia mixed, and advanced to recover the point of vantage. The skirmish grew hot: the British and Canadians charged, were repelled, and charged again. At this moment it was reported to Brock that his first reinforcement had come up—two weak companies, ninety men, of the York Militia from Brown’s Point. He was turning to shout to the messenger, “Push on the York Volunteers”, when he was struck by a ball in the right breast, which passed completely through his body. He rolled off his horse, had just breath enough left to bid the officer nearest him to keep his fall concealed, and was dead within the minute. His corpse was carried down hill to Queenstown and hidden under a pile of blankets, in obedience to his orders.
The charge which Brock was heading was continued, under the leadership of his Canadian aide-de-camp John Macdonell. It drove the Americans out of the battery, and to the very edge of the precipitous slope behind it. But the striking force was too small: Macdonell fell, and with him nearly all the other officers of the companies engaged. The enemy was being continually reinforced up the steep path behind, and the odds were too great. The attack failed, and the survivors withdrew far back on to the plateau, where they were joined by the remnants of the detachment that had been fighting below. Not more than 200 unwounded men were left. The reinforcements from Fort George and Chippewa were not yet arrived. It looked as if the Americans had won the heights and established themselves on the point of vantage at which they had aimed.
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