At the first report that the American army was approaching, Riall ordered a retreat, and his advance was already in march from the field when Drummond arrived with the Eighty-ninth regiment, and countermanded the order.[69] Drummond then formed his line, numbering according to his report sixteen hundred men, but in reality seventeen hundred and seventy rank-and-file,[70]—the left resting on the high road, his two twenty-four-pound brass field-pieces, two six-pounders, and a five-and-a-half-inch howitzer a little advanced in front of his centre on the summit of the low hill, and his right stretching forward so as to overlap Scott’s position in attacking. Lundy’s Lane, at right angles with the river, ran close behind the British position. Hardly had he completed his formation, when, in his own words, “the whole front was warmly and closely engaged.”

With all the energy Scott could throw into his blow, he attacked the British left and centre. Drummond’s left stopped slightly beyond the road, and was assailed by Jesup’s battalion, the Twenty-fifth regiment, while Scott’s other battalions attacked in front. So vigorous was Jesup’s assault that he forced back the Royal Scots and Eighty-ninth, and got into the British rear, where he captured Major-General Riall himself, as he left the field seriously wounded. “After repeated attacks,” said Drummond’s report, “the troops on the left were partially forced back, and the enemy gained a momentary possession of the road.” In the centre also Scott attacked with obstinacy; but the British artillery was altogether too strong and posted too high for Towson’s three guns, which at last ceased firing.[71] There the Americans made no impression, while they were overlapped and outnumbered by the British right.

From seven till nine o’clock Scott’s brigade hung on the British left and centre, charging repeatedly close on the enemy’s guns; and when at last with the darkness their firing ceased from sheer exhaustion, they were not yet beaten. Brady’s battalion, the Ninth and Twenty-second, and McNeil’s, the Eleventh, were broken up; their ammunition was exhausted, and most of their officers were killed or wounded. The Eleventh and Twenty-second regiments lost two hundred and thirty men killed, wounded, and missing, or more than half their number; many of the men left the field, and only with difficulty could a battalion be organized from the debris.[72] McNeil and Brady were wounded, and Major Leavenworth took command of the remnant. With a small and exhausted force which could not have numbered more than six hundred men, and which Drummond by a vigorous movement might have wholly destroyed, Scott clung to the enemy’s flank until in the darkness Ripley’s brigade came down on the run. The American line was also reinforced by Porter’s brigade; by the First regiment, one hundred and fifty strong, which crossed from the American side of the river; and by Ritchie’s and Biddle’s batteries.

At about the same time the rest of Riall’s force, twelve hundred and thirty rank-and-file, with two more six-pound guns, appeared on the field, and were placed in a second line or used to prolong the British right. If Scott had lost four hundred men from the ranks Drummond had certainly lost no more, for his men were less exposed. Brown was obliged to leave details of men for camp duty; Drummond brought three thousand rank-and-file on the field. At nine o’clock Drummond could scarcely have had fewer than twenty-six hundred men in Lundy’s Lane, with seven field-pieces, two of which were twenty-four-pounders. Brown could scarcely have had nineteen hundred, even allowing Porter to have brought five hundred of his volunteers into battle.[73] He had also Towson’s, Ritchie’s, and Biddle’s batteries,—seven twelve-pound field-pieces in all.

As long as the British battery maintained its fire in the centre, victory was impossible and escape difficult.[74] Ripley’s brigade alone could undertake the task of capturing the British guns, and to it the order was given. Colonel Miller was to advance with the Twenty-first regiment against the British battery in front.[75] Ripley himself took command of the Twenty-third regiment on the right, to lead it by the road to attack the enemy’s left flank in Lundy’s Lane. According to the story that for the next fifty years was told to every American school-boy as a model of modest courage, General Brown gave to Miller the order to carry the enemy’s artillery, and Miller answered, “I’ll try!”[76]

The two regiments thus thrown on the enemy’s centre and left numbered probably about seven hundred men in the ranks, according to Ripley’s belief. The Twenty-first regiment was the stronger, and may have contained four hundred and fifty men, including officers; the Twenty-third could scarcely have brought three hundred into the field. In a few minutes both battalions were in motion. The Twenty-third, advancing along the road on the right, instantly attracted the enemy’s fire at about one hundred and fifty yards from the hill, and was thrown back. Ripley reformed the column, and in five minutes it advanced again.[77] While the Twenty-third was thus engaged on the right, the Twenty-first silently advanced in front, covered by shrubbery and the darkness, within a few rods of the British battery undiscovered, and with a sudden rush carried the guns, bayoneting the artillery-men where they stood.

So superb a feat of arms might well startle the British general, who could not see that less than five hundred men were engaged in it; but according to the British account[78] the guns stood immediately in front of a British line numbering at least twenty-six hundred men in ranks along Lundy’s Lane. Drummond himself must have been near the spot, for the whole line of battle was but five minutes’ walk; apparently he had but to order an advance, to drive Miller’s regiment back without trouble. Yet Miller maintained his ground until Ripley came up on his right. According to the evidence of Captain McDonald of Ripley’s staff, the battle was violent during fifteen or twenty minutes:—

Perhaps this feat was more remarkable than the surprise of the battery. Ripley’s Twenty-third regiment, about three hundred men, broke the British line, not in the centre but on its left, where the Eighty-ninth, the Royal Scots, King’s, and the Forty-first were stationed,[80] and caused them to retire half a mile from the battle-field before they halted to reform.

When the firing ceased, Ripley’s brigade held the hill-top, with the British guns, and the whole length of Lundy’s Lane to the high-road. Porter then brought up his brigade on the left; Hindman brought up his guns, and placed Towson’s battery on Ripley’s right, Ritchie’s on his left, while Biddle’s two guns were put in position on the road near the corner of Lundy’s Lane. Jesup with the Twenty-fifth regiment was put in line on the right of Towson’s battery; Leavenworth with the remnants of the Ninth, Eleventh, and Twenty-second formed a second line in the rear of the captured artillery; and thus reversing the former British order of battle, the little army stood ranked along the edge of Lundy’s Lane, with the British guns in their rear.

The British force was then in much confusion, a part of it marching into the American line by mistake, and suffering a destructive fire; a part of it firing into the regiment on its own right, and keeping up the fire persistently.[81] In order to recover their artillery they must assault, without guns, a steep hill held by an enemy with several field-pieces. Had Brown been able to put a reserve of only a few hundred men into the field, his victory was assured; but the battle and exhaustion were rapidly reducing his force. He had at ten o’clock not more than fifteen hundred men in the ranks, and almost every officer was wounded.

After a long interval the British line was reformed, and brought to the attack. General Drummond’s report said nothing of this movement, but according to the American account the two lines were closely engaged their whole length at a distance of ten or twelve yards. In the darkness the troops could aim only at the flash of the muskets. “We having much the advantage of the ground, the enemy generally fired over our heads,” said Captain McDonald of Ripley’s staff; “but the continual blaze of light was such as to enable us distinctly to see their buttons.” After a sharp combat of some twenty minutes the enemy retreated. Three times, at intervals of half an hour or more, the British line moved up the hill, and after the exchange of a hot fire retired; between the attacks, for half an hour at a time, all was darkness and silence, hardly interrupted by a breath of air. Brown and Scott were with Porter on the extreme left. In the centre, by the captured cannon, Ripley sat on his horse, ten or twelve paces in rear of his line. Two bullets passed through his hat, but he was unhurt. Captain Ritchie was killed at his battery on the left; Jesup was wounded on the right. Each attack sorely diminished the number of men in the ranks, until at the close of the third about seven hundred rank-and-file, with few officers, were believed to remain in position.[82]

Scott, with Leavenworth’s consolidated battalion, after ranging somewhat wildly the entire length of the line in the attempt to turn the enemy’s flank, and receiving the fire of both armies, joined Jesup’s Twenty-fifth regiment on the right, and was at last severely wounded.[83] At about the same time Brown was wounded on the extreme left,[84] where Porter’s volunteers held the line. Major Leavenworth, with the remnants of the first brigade, moving from the left to reinforce Jesup on the right after the third repulse of the enemy, met Scott retiring from the field, and soon afterward was hailed by General Brown, who was also returning to camp severely wounded. The time was then about eleven o’clock, and every one felt that the army must soon retreat.[85] Farther in the rear General Brown met Major Hindman of the artillery, who was bringing up his spare ammunition wagons. Brown ordered Hindman to collect his artillery as well as he could, and retire immediately; “we shall all march to camp.” He said that they had done as much as they could do; that nearly all their officers were killed or wounded; that he was himself wounded, and he thought it best to retire to camp. Hindman on arriving at the hill, firing having wholly ceased, immediately began to withdraw the guns. Ripley first learned the order to withdraw by discovering the artillery to be already gone.[86] Next came a peremptory order to collect the wounded and retire.[87] The order was literally obeyed. The enemy in no way molested the movement; and at about midnight the wearied troops marched for camp, in as good order and with as much regularity as they had marched to the battle-field.[88]

Hindman withdrew his own guns, and having with some difficulty procured horses to haul off the British pieces, on returning to the hill after Ripley’s withdrawal found the enemy again in possession, and some men and wagons captured.[89] He left the field at once, with the British in possession of their guns, and followed the retreating column.

Lieutenant-General Drummond’s report of the battle, though silent as to the repeated British repulses, declared that the Americans fought with uncommon gallantry:—

Drummond’s “few minutes” were three hours. According to the British account, the One-Hundred-and-third regiment, with its two field-pieces, arrived on the field just at nine, and “passed by mistake into the centre of the American army now posted upon the hill.”[90] The regiment “fell back in confusion” and lost its two field-pieces, which were captured by Miller, with Riall’s five pieces. By British report, Miller was at nine o’clock “in possession of the crest of the hill and of seven pieces of captured artillery.”[91] Drummond admitted that in retiring “about midnight” the Americans carried away one of his light pieces, having limbered it up by mistake and leaving one of their own. During the entire action after nine o’clock Drummond did not fire a cannon, although, according to Canadian authority, the fighting was desperate:—