General Scott by Marcus Joseph Wright
page 40 of 370 (10%)
page 40 of 370 (10%)
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the Royal Nineteenth Light Dragoons, and some Canadian militia and
Indians. These were supported by a heavy battery of nine guns. Scott crossed the bridge under fire of this battery, losing a number of men. After crossing, the commands of Majors Henry Leavenworth and John McNeil, Jr., formed line in front opposite the center and left of the enemy. Major Thomas Sidney Jesup moved to the left and advanced to attack the enemy's right. Towson's battery was on the right, on the Chippewa road. Seeing that the British lines outflanked him, Scott ordered the movement of Jesup to the left. The battle now opened, Jesup holding in check the right wing of the enemy, his position in the wood concealing him from view. General Scott had now advanced to within eighty paces of the enemy, and ordering the left flank of McNeil's battalion formed on the right so that it was oblique to the enemy's charge and flanking him on the right. Scott called to McNeil's command, which had no recruits in it: "The enemy say we are good at long shot, but can not stand the cold iron. I call upon the Eleventh to give the lie to that slander. Charge!" The charge was made at once, supported by a corresponding charge of Leavenworth and a flank fire from Towson's battery. The British broke, and fled in great confusion. In the meantime Major Jesup, commanding on the left, ordered his men to advance, which they did, driving the enemy into his intrenchments across the Chippewa. The British forces engaged were about twenty-one hundred men, and that of the Americans nineteen hundred. The British lost in killed, one hundred and thirty-eight; wounded, three hundred and nineteen; and missing, forty-six. The American loss was sixty killed, two hundred and forty-eight wounded, and nineteen missing. General Brown in his official report says: "Brigadier General Scott is entitled to the highest praise our country can bestow; to him more than to any other man am I indebted for the victory of July 5th. His |
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