A Young Winfield Scott Surrenders... Battle of Queenston Height...

5fish

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You know Winfield Scott as a young officer had to surrender to British forces in Canada at the battle of Queenston Heights on13 October 1812. It was the first major battle of the war of 1812. If you are a New Yorker its not your finest moment. He was forced to surrender fearing a massacre of his men.



The Battle of Queenston Heights was the first major battle in the War of 1812. Resulting in a British victory, it took place on 13 October 1812 near Queenston, Upper Canada (now Ontario).

The battle was fought between United States regulars with New York militia forces, led by Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer, and British regulars, York and Lincoln militia and Mohawk warriors, led by Major General Isaac Brock and then Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, who took command after Brock was killed. The battle was fought as the result of an American attempt to establish a foothold on the Canadian side of the Niagara River before campaigning ended with the onset of winter. The decisive battle was the culmination of a poorly-managed American offensive and may be most historically significant for the loss of the British commander. Despite their numerical advantage and the wide dispersal of British forces defending against their invasion attempt, the Americans, who were stationed in Lewiston, New York, were unable to get the bulk of their invasion force across the Niagara River because of the work of British artillery and the reluctance on the part of the undertrained and inexperienced American militia. As a result, British reinforcements arrived, defeated the unsupported American forces, and forced them to surrender.

The Surrender...

Sheaffe took his time forming his men up and preparing them for battle and attacked at 4 p.m., twelve hours after Van Rensselaer launched his assault. The first attack was made by the light company of the 41st with 35 militia and some Native Americans against the riflemen on Scott's right. After firing a volley, they charged with the bayonet, forcing the riflemen to give way in confusion.[51] Sheaffe immediately ordered a general advance, and the entire British line fired a volley, raised the Indian war-whoop and charged. The American militia, hearing the Mohawk war-cries and believing themselves doomed, retreated en masse and without orders. Cursing the men who would not cross the river, General Wadsworth surrendered at the edge of the precipice with 300 men. Scott, Totten and some others scrambled down the steep bank to the edge of the river. With no boats arriving to evacuate his men and with the Mohawk warriors furious over the deaths of two chiefs, Scott feared a massacre and surrendered to the British. The first two officers who tried to surrender were killed by Native Americans, and after Scott had personally waved a white flag (actually Totten's white cravat), excited Natives continued to fire from the heights into the crowd of Americans on the river bank below for several minutes.[50] Once the surrender was made, Scott was shocked to see 500 militiamen, who had been hiding around the heights, emerging to surrender also.

Here is another look at Scott and 1812...

https://www.historynet.com/the-education-of-winfield-scott/

It was the sort of message no soldier ever wants to receive, particularly not an untried 26-year-old U.S. Army officer leading his men as they confronted a disciplined and heavily reinforced British opponent. On the afternoon of October 13, 1812, Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott opened the note from his commanding officer, Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer. “I have passed through my camp,” Van Rensselaer advised him. “Not a regiment, not a company is willing to join you. Save yourself by a retreat, if you can.”

The problem wasn’t that Van Rensselaer had no men to send to Scott. It was that some of the militia units still on the New York side of the Niagara River had refused to follow their comrades into Canada, a refusal that Scott laid squarely on “the machinations in the ranks of demagogues.”
 

5fish

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Look a print of a Young Scott all I have ever seen before was him as an old man...

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Lt Col Winfield Scott was instructed to take command of the American forces that captured Queenston Heights earlier in the day. Scott was later captured at the end of the battle.
 

Matt McKeon

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Winfield Scott was one of the best soldiers that the United States every produced. But he had a very bad day at Queenston Heights.

I've visited the battlefield. Its a small riverside town, Queenston, and the Heights, part of the Niagara escarpment.

The battle has it all: an amphbious landing, a defense force consisting of loyal black Canadians, First Nations warriors, Canadian militia, and Redcoated regulars.

If you go to the battlefield park, don't miss the little museum inside the monument to Gen. Isaac Brock, which includes his redcoat, with a bullet hole in the chest. The monument is part of the effort to create a Canadian identity distinct from the United States, and an Anglo identity at that.

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Nice contemporary engraving. One of those ones where all the day's action is shown. I don't know why the invading US forces are wearing red, or while they are flying French flags. I've climbed the Heights: no joke!
 

Matt McKeon

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Another US civil war general, James Wool, was a young officer at Queenston Heights.
 

5fish

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There was a future Civil War general at the battle as well...

During the War of 1812, he was chief engineer of the Niagara frontier and Lake Champlain armies under General Stephen Van Rensselaer. At the Battle of Queenston Heights, he fought alongside Winfield Scott, who used Totten's cravat as a white flag to signal the American surrender.[2] He was brevetted lieutenant colonel for gallant conduct in the Battle of Plattsburgh. As a member of the first permanent Board of Engineers, to which he was appointed in 1816, along with General Simon Bernard, he laid down durable principles of coast defense construction in a report to Congress in 1821.

 

Matt McKeon

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Strangely, I'm going to be there next week. I'll be doing a bunch of stuff, but mostly going to a vineyard: the Niagara escrapement protected the valley to the east, and creates a microclimate suitable to grapevines. The winters are Ontario level serious of course, but the growers have made lemonade out of lemons: a sweet, delicious dessert wine made from crushing the frozen grapes. It's called icewine, its potent, and expensive.
 

Matt McKeon

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If you're interested in military history, there is Fort George, Fort Niagara, Fort Erie and a couple of battlefields, plus a martello tower. In addition there are the mustering grounds for the Canadian military in the world wars, and a small regimental museum for a 19th to 21st century militia unit.

Of course, a civil war connection. Several Confederate officers, including George Pickett(as I remember), stayed briefly in the area, waiting to see if the coast was clear to return to the US. Ironically there was recurring migration of African Americans: some with the defeated Loyalists in 1783, then more than the British abolished slavery in their empire. (Green coated African American militiamen were stout defenders of British authority throughout the 19th century). Then an exodus when New York abolished slavery, then another influx during the Fugitive Slave Law era, then another exodus to the states when the war broke out.
 

5fish

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Here is a great article about Winfield Scott and the time he lived in New York City. He lives there and in New Jersey for quite a while. It's long but you're about his move into the Whig party and his friction with Andrew Jackson and the socialite he was. He may have been more New Yorker than Virginian.


Even more obscure is Scott’s long association with New York City, where he lived and worked for much of his adult life. Though born in Virginia, Scott died an urbanite, marked indelibly by Gotham. He was an immediately recognizable figure on Manhattan’s streets, at home in the salons and dining rooms of Knickerbocker New York’s finest society, and referred to frequently in the diaries and memoirs of the era’s prominent citizens. Leading New York Whigs supported Scott’s presidential bid. He even directed the United States Army from the city. His time in New York influenced one of the most significant decisions of his life: to remain with the army instead of joining the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War. His native Virginians burned him in effigy for that choice, and he remains a controversial figure in the South. New Yorkers, by contrast, simply forgot him.
 

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Here is another battle from the War of 1812 involving Winfield Scott... The battle was a draw but a strategic victory for the British... and Scott was wounded in the battle...


The Battle of Lundy's Lane, also known as the Battle of Niagara,[8] was a battle fought on 25 July 1814, during the War of 1812, between an invading American army and a British and Canadian army near present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war,[9] and one of the deadliest battles fought in Canada,[10] with approximately 1,720 casualties including 258 killed. The two armies fought each other to a stalemate; neither side held firm control of the field following the engagement. However, the casualties suffered by the Americans precipitated their withdrawal, and the British held the strategic initiative.


In a classic meeting engagement, United States regulars under the command of Brigadier General Winfield Scott emerged from a forest into the mouths of the British artillery. After taking an initial beating, Scott ordered one of his regiments to flank the British left, which they achieved, engaging and routing two surprised battalions while he engaged the center. This flanking movement also managed to capture Riall, who had been wounded and was riding to the rear.


Approximately 100 yards west of Portage Road on Lundy’s Lane stood a Presbyterian Church built in 1775. It was a small red log building which stood on the highest ground on Lundy’s Lane Hill (presently known as Drummond Hill). Along the south side of this church was a small enclosed grave yard.
 
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