Picking My Battles: Lundy’s Lane

Welcome to part four 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. This will likely be the last battle I look at in the series.

After the British lost at the Battle of Chippawa the commander of Upper Canada, Drummond, takes over command of the Right Division from Riall in whom he is seriously losing confidence. As the Americans withdraw south after seeing no sign of the American fleet on Lake Ontario Drummund brings his division out to meet them. Just before evening the American’s send Winfield Scott’s First Brigade to meet the British.

The British are deployed on a long ridge running nearly the length of Lundy’s Lane, named after a local farmer. The U.S. First Brigade stands under accurate British artillery fire and uselessly fire back, far outranged. Unwilling to retire and unable to advance the brigade suffers terribly. Scott sends the Twenty-Fifth U.S. Infantry through some trees to outflank the British left. They catch the British in the midst of deploying and push them back.

American Infantry attacks, Battle of Lundy’s Lane, 25 July 1814.
United States Army Painting: New York State Military Museum

This caused Drummond to rotate and pull his line back, exposing his gunners. The American Commander, Major General Jacob Brown, orders the Twenty-First U.S. Infantry regiment to attack and capture the exposed guns. Lieutenant Colonel James Miller replies, “I’ll try, Sir,” and marches his regiment up the ridge. Covered by an attack on their left by First U.S. Infantry they succeed in capturing the British guns. This causes the British line to further fall back off the ridge.

The British are unable to recapture the ridge though they try three times. Scott moves his severely depleted brigade between the U.S. and British lines in an unauthorized attack which succeeds in drawing the fire of both the British and his own side. Defeated, the British fall back for the night. Suprisingly, after achieving mastery of the field the Americans withdraw back to their camp. This will lead to controversey as both sides will attempt to claim the victory.

Pros:

This is another battle between well-trained and lead regulars. Players on both sides should feel like they have a chance of achieving their objectives

The battlefield is interesting, being a mix of open fields, fenced fields, woods and the ridge at Lundy’s Lane.

I can visit the battlefield.

The close result should allow for a balanced scenario.

There isn’t an inbalance in numbers between sides so I won’t have to paint up more Americans than British when I’d rather be painting British.

Cons:

The battle becomes irregular as night falls. If I insist on a stereotypical Napoleonic fight, this battle is not the best choice.

I just can’t seem to get as excited about this battle.

How I Would Do It:

This battle is straightforward in application. Paint up both sides, build the terrain, line them up and fight. The part which adds interest is the onset of night. Line of sight would have to be reduced, most likely through a random die roll. Movement should also be random to show how difficult it was to navigate in the dark. This adds to the complexity of the rules and while it would make a nice change from the ordinary it doesn’t seem appropriate for my first 1812 battle.

Now I have to decide which battle I want to represent. As I was writing this I thought I knew, but now I’m not sure. One thing that I’ve realized is important to me is what units were present and in what strength. For example, Lundy’s Lane features ad-hoc battalions and very understrength units, where I’d prefer to have larger units. Perhaps the next step is to compare the OOB from the three battles I am still considering – Queenston Heights, Crysler’s Farm and Lundy’s Lane. I will convert the historical OOBs into whatever figure scale is appropriate for the battle.

Tyler