Picking My Battles: Battle of Chippawa

Welcome to part three of Picking My Battles. This series is about the different battles of the War of 1812 which I am considering as the basis for a participation game. In each part I give a very brief description of the battle, the pros and cons of modelling it as a wargame, and finally some thoughts on how to actually model the scenario.

Chippawa was in some ways only a preview to Lundy’s Lane. The most important outcome of the battle was informing the British of the professionalism of the American army. How different Lundy’s Lane may have been if the British assumed the American army was as undisciplined and poorly lead as the previous year? As close fought and bloody as Lundy’s Lane already was would over-confident British commanders commit a disasterous blunder thinking they were fighting militia and might-as-well-be-militia? I’ll leave a description of Lundy’s Lane for the next post in the series.

In July 1814 the Americans are once again mounting an invasion of Canada. This year they are so significantly better trained and better lead that they will defeat the British defenders in open combat, though they don’t know this yet. The invaders, the American Left Division under Major General Jacob Brown, quickly taking Fort Erie from a tiny British garrison force the Americans begin moving north up the Niagara with the intention of meeting Commodore Isaac Chauncey and the US Fleet on Lake Ontario.

Winfield Scott leading the 1st Brigade. Image is a US Federal Government work and considered public domain.

Meanwhile, Major General Phineas Riall in command of the British Right Division moves south along the Niagara to lift what he assumes is an American siege of Fort Erie. Little does he know he is about the face almost the entire American Left Division. Along the way he gathers the various battalions of his division which had been spread thin to cover the entire Canadian peninsula. He makes contact with the Left Division but hasn’t built enough strength to challenge them. To buy time Riall makes a fighting withdraw, skirmishing with the Americans, destroying bridges and otherwise delaying the Americans.

At Chippawa Riall has reached the most defensible terrain to be found between the American force and Fort George and Lake Ontario. The question is, should he make a stand and defend the river, or attack the Americans. Assuming that he faced only a small force, since the majority of the American division would be still besieging Fort Erie, and contemptuous of the American’s ability to match his regulars Riall chooses to attack.

The battle is essentially a class between regulars, although some of the Americans wore grey coatees instead of their customary blue. This caused the Riall to mistake them for regulars and after seeing them maneuver steadily under fire famously exclaims “Those are regulars, by God!”1 The numerically superior Americans extend their line and turn the British flank, forcing them the withdraw back across the Chippawa.

Like many battles of the War of 1812 the Battle of Chippawa doesn’t appear to amount to anything. The British destroyed the bridge over the Chippawa again and prepared to harass the American as they attempted to repair it. This didn’t last long as false reports of an American crossing upsteam lead to a general British withdraw that ended only in Fort George. The Americans advanced to Queenston and waited for Chauncey’s squadron to appear. When they didn’t the Americans pulled back, the British sallied forth to do what damage they could and the Battle of Lundy’s Lane was the result.

Pros:

Regulars vs. Regulars. No player would have to be saddled with either poor troops or poor commanders.

The terrain is open and with room enough to maneuver.

Although some of the Americans wore grey coats this was a different in cloth but not cut, so a paint-conversion would work fine to represent them.

Although I am getting my information from a book which focuses on Lundy’s Lane, there is a book dedicated to the Battle of Chippawa by the same author I could use.

Simple, straight forward and battles wouldn’t be hard to represent in a wargame.

Cons:

The battle is a little too straight forward and small. The British and Americans were evenly matched man for man, but the Americans simply outnumbered their opponents. The Americans made proper use of their numbers and won the engagement.

No 49th or 89th, two British units that feature in a number of different battles of the war.

How I Would Do It:

This battle is straight forward and won’t take much thought to assemble. This is perhaps why I’m not as interested in choosing this battle as the one to focus my 1812 project on. Paint the forces in either 1:5 or 1:10 figure-scale, build some terrain and roll some dice. Which means it probably doesn’t need to be the focus of my 1812 project. I could credibly fight the battle with portions of the figures I would have to paint for Lundy’s Lane. Better to model Lundy’s Lane.

A quick one this time. It’s such a small, uncomplicated engagement that I almost started giving a blow-by-blow before reminding myself that the battle overview is supposed to be brief. Next time we go big and complex with the Battle of Lundy’s Lane. While Crysler’s Farm is daunting from the number of conversions required, Lundy’s Lane took place primarily at night, requiring special rules.

Tyler