Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/247

, July 5th. He then retreated to Lundy’s Lane, now a street in the village of Niagara Falls South. The American soldiers began plundering and burning the buildings of the farmers, and destroyed the pretty village of St. David’s. They then advanced against Riall at Lundy’s Lane. General Drummond heard of the invasion, and the battle at Chippewa, and hurried from Kingston to aid General Riall. He reached Fort Niagara on the morning of July 25th, and with eight hundred men pushed forward to Lundy’s Lane. At five o’clock in the afternoon he met General Riall retreating before a strong body of American troops under Generals Brown, Ripley, and Scott. Drummond at once stopped the retreat, and faced the foe. The Americans were four thousand strong, the Canadians had three thousand. From five o’clock till midnight the battle raged. The utmost stubbornness and courage were shown by both armies in the fierce struggle for the British guns. General Riall was taken prisoner and three American generals, Scott, Brown, and Porter, were wounded. At last, worn out in the vain effort to force the British position, the Americans retreated, leaving their dead to be burned by the victors, for the number of slain was so great that burial was impossible. The loss to the enemy was nearly nine hundred; to the British, about the same. The scene of this battle, the best contested and bloodiest of the whole war, is marked to-day by a little church and graveyard in which many a Canadian hero sleeps.

The war was drawing to a close. The Americans after the battle retired to Fort Erie, which they held for some time in spite of the attacks of General Drummond, and then withdrew across the river. In the meantime the war in Europe had been brought to an end by Napoleon’s defeat and his retirement to the island of Elba,